The Once and Future Prefects
by jessseri
Summary: The Dalton prefects bond as they deal with stalkers, relationships and house wars.  Based on CP Coulter's Dalton-verse.  Featuring but not limited to Chustin, Jogan, and Dwight/Laura.  Pre E26
1. The Blood on the Stone

**I do not own CP Coulter's Dalton, Glee, TH White's Once and Future King, or anything besides the writing and two characters (Emil and Andy).**

Justin hated having to cancel on Charlie. If not because he didn't want to disappoint Charlie, but because he always enjoyed their plans. And sure, in the few years that they had been secretly dating, with the Windsor hysterics, Charlie _frequently_ cancelled on Justin. But it was only recently that Justin had started cancelling on Charlie.

People often assumed that everything was naturally calm at Hanover, and Justin didn't bother correcting them. But people were mistaken: things were calm at Hanover because Justin kept them that way. Teenage boys were still teenage boys. High school was still high school. And only previous Hanover prefects could understand the careful and calculated effort required in maintaining the peace and structure of neutrality.

So when Danny came up to him at his last class and told him there was an emergency, Justin muttered a curse and pulled out his phone to text Charlie his regrets. This was the third emergency this week, and was in the company of many other recent strange occurrences in Hanover. It was getting bad enough that Justin half considered consulting Dwight about exorcising the house. Things were never _this_ bad before; there had to be a reason.

"What's the emergency, Danny?" Justin asked, still looking at his phone, as they walked back to Hanover.

"There's blood in the kitchen. Like, _lots_ of it. No one knows what it's from. Merril's freaking out, Jeff's accusing everyone who walks in, and Adam passed out. And the second Spencer finds Merril crying, he's going to join in with Jeff and rile the whole house up."

Justin looked at Danny with wide eyes, which immediately flashed down to Danny's wrists before he even realized what he was doing. This seemed to make Danny uncomfortable, and Justin awkwardly turned back to his phone as it received a new message. _Lemme know if you need back up. I'll be over at 4 as usual. –C_

Charlie usually came over in the early afternoon to work on homework and they parted ways for dinner. But tonight they had been planning on catching a movie and eating dinner together – away from the madness of Dalton. Charlie hadn't even mentioned the former plans in his response to Justin's cancellation, and it made Justin feel even guiltier.

"How much blood are we talking, here?" Justin slid his phone back into his bag and focused on the issue at hand. And then it hit him that he was talking about _blood_. "Wait – Is everyone accounted for?"

"I…" Danny looked like he hadn't considered this possibility, and then like he was running through a mental list of who he had seen recently.

Justin wondered how Danny hadn't thought about this, but as the boys arrived at Hanover, he was distracted by a screaming match between three sophomores. They stood halfway between the front door and the kitchen and wildly gestured to the kitchen as they yelled at each other.

Justin slammed the front door and instantly earned silence. The sophomores, still wearing anger in their eyes, turned their heads to Justin like dogs watching a car pass by.

"Everyone in the common room, _now_," Justin gritted his teeth and approached the kitchen cautiously.

It smelled terrible. The blood covered half of the kitchen table and had spilled onto the floor and a mismatched chair. Justin stared at the scene blankly, as the remaining Hanovers in the room filed silently into the common room. Only Danny stood, equally as silent, behind Justin, observing the prefect's behavior.

Justin tried to quantify the blood in his head. It was a lot. Too much for any human to lose and still be alive. A few liters, maybe. It wasn't dry on the wood of the table, where it looked like it had absorbed most of the blood. The trail that fell from the table to the chair, and then to the floor looked dry upon the floor in a small puddle. On the other side, a smaller trail formed a near perfectly straight line until it stopped at a large black container.

Carefully avoiding the dried blood on the floor, Justin approached the container. It still held some blood, pooled at the bottom and looking terrifyingly mundane and like paint. He recognized the black container. It had been in the back of the freezer for months. He had never questioned it because, well, Hanovers tended to keep to themselves, and as long as it didn't start to smell, no one cared. Justin knew better to meddle in the secrets of Hanovers, but now he was beginning to regret this attitude.

With this disturbing thought and scene fresh on his mind, Justin stormed into the common room, Danny following behind like a shadow.

The room had been silent for a few minutes after they were ordered into it, but conversation had slowly began, and it was now approaching the yelling chaos that Justin had recently silenced. His presence repeated the cycle.

Adam lay, still unconscious, on one of the arm chairs in the corner. Merril sat nearby, eyes red, beside a chestnut haired boy, Emil, who had been her roommate her first year – before Avery had arranged for her to have a single. Merril wiped away her tears as she and Emil tried to see if Adam was okay.

"Who's missing?" Justin snapped.

He was almost too intimidating for anyone to respond, but as they looked around the room, the boys began to appraise the answer.

It was Merril who finally spoke up, her voice shaking, "Spencer."

"Andy," Emil added, his light Boston accent barely noticeable in the one word.

"Chris."

A few other names were thrown out, and Justin counted the room to see if enough names had been noted. "Call them, right now."

Within minutes, everyone had been accounted for and Justin realized that he needed to actually deal with the situation in front of him. This was not the first time he'd seen this amount of blood, not the first time he'd been in this deep. But it was the first time that he cared about the people involved, and that made it feel like the first time at all. How had he been able to stomach gang life just a few years ago?

Frantically trying to decide what to do next, he did the only thing he could think of. "No one goes into the kitchen tonight. Now, I want to know whose container that is, and I want to know who spilled it. I'll be in my room, and I swear to God, I better receive answers by the time the kitchen is clean again."

He stormed off, leaving Danny standing in front of a confused and terrified room.

"Fuck."

Justin climbed the steps to the second floor with absolutely no idea what to do next. He should call the cops. That was_ a lot_ of blood. But everyone was okay, and the blood had come from a bizarre plastic bottle in the freezer, not a live person. What if it wasn't human? It probably wasn't human. How was he supposed to know if it was human? He didn't want to call the cops. Hanovers kept Hanover secrets. But this was not a secret he could keep.

* * *

><p>Logan was not good at moping. Don't misunderstand, Logan was fully <em>capable<em> of moping, and annoying everyone in the area code with his sad ballads and constant whining, but Logan hated it. One of the reasons he crashed so hard when he fell in love was because he _liked _being in love. It was his one excuse to be passionate and ignore his medication. Falling in love frequently seemed like the only reason Logan would ever have to feel. And trying to ignore this - trying to pretend that he had never loved and never felt - was like the live action version of his brain on his medication.

So when Logan wandered in to Julian's room, he was trying to distract himself from the absence of feeling and from lingering too long on fond memories of emotion. Julian could always distract him. He loved pissing Julian off, and Julian loved pissing him off, and Logan had decided that this mutual love of annoying each other was what made their friendship work.

He opened the door to Julian studying.

"Are you doing homework?" he said with an overacted surprise tone. "I thought the school got some Asian kid to take classes for famous actors?"

"Har har," Julian grunted, turning his chair around entirely, glad at Logan's distraction. "I guess they only do that for lead singers. Why aren't _you_ working on something right now?"

"I am working," Logan smirked proudly. He crashed onto Julian's bed with a dramatic hand flourish. "I am working on annoying you."

"Oh, the things you put your effort into," Julian rolled his eyes. "Seriously, you don't have anything else to do? No countertenors to serenade?"

Logan sat up with a jerk and an angry face. "I told you, I'm finished with that. But it's fucking miserable, so I'm trying to distract myself with my best friend. You're doing a terrible job."

"Since when am I your best friend?" Julian's eyebrows rose so high it was comical. "Go bother Derek; your romantic shit is driving me insane."

"Good god, you're a selfish asshole," Logan threw his arms up in frustration. "I'm _trying_ to not talk about him. _You_ are the one who keeps bringing him up. And you think _I'm_ driving _you_ insane?"

"Go bother Derek." Julian turned back around to his writing and tried to keep himself from screaming. It was a mistake to think this might be a happy distraction.

"Derek is not half as fun to annoy as you are," Logan smirked at this thought, but his face fell quickly as he continued. "And he's twice as bad about reminding me of things."

"Now who's bringing it up?" Julian grumbled, not turning around.

"Why does it bother you so much?" Logan snapped, irritated.

"Because you're a stupid idiot, and it's really tiring to watch over and over again." Julian still did not turn around.

"Julian, if you have a problem, come out with it. I don't need to hear you bitch about how you hate listening to my shit because I listen to your shit - when you even bother to be here."

"My problem, Logan," Julian finally turned back to Logan, whipping around so quickly that his paper flew down the desk in the gust he caused. "Is you. _You_ are my problem. You think you listen to my problems? Bull shit, Logan. Whenever I'm here, I listen to your problems, and I try to help – Fuck! I _do_ help. I help because I can't stand to see you upset because _I'm in love with you_. You dense, fucking idiot. I'm in love with you."

As soon as he finished his rant, his face froze in panic. Fuck fuck fuck. Why did he just say that?

"You're _what_?"

Logan was equally frozen. The boys sat staring at each other with wide eyes for a minute before Julian spoke again.

"I have tried so hard…not to love you." Julian looked down at the floor.

"Why do people think that's a compliment?" Logan's eyes squinted. "That's an insult. Do people not know that that's an insult?"

"You act like you hear that often," Julian muttered. "I'm not the first unlucky bastard?"

"Again, with the flattering," Logan snapped. "Look, you either want me or you don't, and if you're still having this debate, I don't really need some pre-relationship heartbreak.

"Wait, is this just an elaborate acting-practice insult, because, Jules, I know I came in here to be annoyed by you, but this is taking it too far."

"Logan, you are a colossal idiot. The reason _I don't want to love you_ is because you will never love me back. I'm not debating it, I'm _suffering_ it. Because you would chase half of the Warblers around hopelessly without even realizing I was there."

Both boys still sat where they were. Neither spoke with the elaborate gestures they usually used to dramatize their game of annoyance. Instead, Logan sat still, eyes darting back and forth across the floor, mind trying to comprehend what Julian had just confessed.

"In my defense, I thought you were straight," he stated calmly. Disturbingly calmly, if you were to ask Julian. It felt as out of place - as if Logan had just asked Julian about their English assignment.

"I…Clearly not," Julian muttered guiltily. "I'm bi."

"And you're in love with me?" Logan questioned. "Like this? As fucked up as I am?"

"Yes. I'm in love with you." Julian sounded even guiltier. "Just as you are."

Logan sat stunned at this thought. As he was? If ever there was a more appealing statement to give an emotionally unstable boy who had always been told he wasn't good enough, Logan had not heard it. He leaned forward and grabbed Julian by his shirt, pulling him into a forceful kiss.

Julian scrambled, struggling against his body's urge to fall on top of Logan and continue what he had just initiated. But with impressive determination of his mind, Julian managed to remove Logan's grip and fall onto the floor instead.

Standing up, he stared at Logan with offense. "I'm not a fuck buddy, Logan. And unlike you when you're drugged up like this, I have feelings. You are still in love with Kurt, and I am not going to do this."

He looked to the door pointedly, but Logan did not move. Logan had every intention of standing by the kiss he had just started, but Julian had said Kurt's name, and now his heart was doing twisted awful things.

"I didn't mean to-"

"No you never do, do you, Logan?" Julian looked back to the door, lingering on it longer this time.

"Julian, I'm not in love with you," Logan started carefully, "but I could be. So easily. And if you have any patience in that prissy body of yours, you'll deal with me while I get over…Kurt."

"Am I supposed to be wooed by your heartbreaking inability to say his name still?" Julian stopped hinting that Logan should leave and let himself get his hopes up.

"What I'm saying, Jules," Logan stood up and dared to approach Julian again. "Is that you are worth it. You are exactly what I need. And I know that that's not the perfect declaration of love that you want - or anywhere near it – but it's something, isn't it? God Jules, you're worth so much. You're so fucking…special."

"You selfish bastard, if you start singing Radiohead, I won't let you kiss me," Julian conceded, hoping he wouldn't regret it.

Logan's mouth burst into a large grin before it reconnected with Julian's. Now, Julian responded, and within seconds, he was breathing deeply and failing to resist the request Logan's tongue was making.

* * *

><p>The fact that it was no longer <em>entirely<em> surprising to walk in to Laura sitting on his bed was a problem for Justin. A recurring problem.

"Laura, seriously?" Justin shoved the door closed and rolled his eyes as his body sighed. "Don't you have friends at school? Any?"

Laura smiled and got up to sit by the window. Keeping her smile warm, she glanced out the window and then back to her brother. "I have friends everywhere. I'm just a lovable person."

"Well, _lovable sister_," Justin jerked his head to glare at Laura, who was looking way too proud. "Do you think you could go back to the friends at your school and live your own life, instead of living vicariously through mine?"

"But your life is so much more interesting. People are going crazy here; did you notice?" Laura perked up further, and Justin wondered just how excited she could get over his stress.

"Yea, Laura, I'm in the middle of trying to deal with that. Now I have to deal with you too. Do you realize exactly how difficult you make my life?" Justin rubbed his eyes angrily. "I can't deal with you right now; I'm calling Charlie to babysit you."

"You do realize that I'm only three years younger than you. I don't need to be babysat."

"That is a lie, and you know it." Justin held the phone to his ear with his shoulder as he paced, preoccupied with the images of the kitchen still flashing in his brain. He had no idea what to do, and suddenly the idea of Charlie wrapping his arms around him and telling him it was okay was a much more motivating reason to call than his pestering sister.

As Justin hung up, he sat on his bed, with his arms on his knees and his face in his hands. After a few minutes, it dawned on Laura that she was the least of his problems.

"Justin…" She reached out to his shoulder sympathetically. "Are you okay?"

There was a knock at the door that not only startled Justin but kept him afraid long after it physically scared him. He wasn't ready to hear confessions or accusations. But as Laura answered the door, and he heard Charlie's voice, he relaxed a minute amount.

"Laura? So this is why Justin called? Seriously, do you know that you live in London?" he joked, closing the door softly. His smile left as he saw the distraught look on both Bancroft faces. "What happened?"

Charlie rushed to sit next to Justin and threw his arm around him, using the other to rub Justin's leg reassuringly. Laura had figured them out a year ago; he didn't bother hiding his intentions with her brother.

"When Emil answered the door he was acting like someone just died. What was the emergency?" Charlie's eyebrows furrowed with concern and he look frantically back and forth from Justin to Laura.

"The kitchen." Justin offered this to Laura and Charlie as if it explained the entirety of his expression. Realizing it did not, he added, "it's covered in blood. Like three liters of blood. I – It – I don't know what to do. I don't know if it's human. No one's missing here.

"It was in a black container in the freezer. You know that one I complained about taking up half of the freezer? But I left it there because I figured that it wasn't really hurting anything. And – _God_ – I let it stay in our freezer. I let someone keep bl – _that_ – in our freezer. Our house. Our fucking house. I don't – I don't know what to do, Chaz."

Justin shook his head and let a few exhausted tears fall out of his eyes. Charlie and Laura wore matching expressions of terror.

"I should call the cops," Justin said it but didn't quite sound like he believed it. "But I can't. Avery never did with E – _No one_ has ever gone to the cops. Even with…"

Charlie recognized that he would never know the secrets Hanovers kept for each other, but was suddenly struck by how serious some of these secrets must have been. There was a massive amount of blood downstairs and Justin seemed to think avoiding law enforcement regarding this was equivalent to previous Hanover cases. Charlie silently thanked his stars that he had been a Windsor. Hanovers were creepy.

But as he looked at his boyfriend, who seemed to be going mad as he internally debated what to do, Charlie wondered if he would ever know the loyalty it required to choose insanity over revealing secrets.

"Justin," Charlie practically shouted, desperate to pull the boy out of his reveries. "If you don't go to the cops…What do you need to do?"

"Figure out what it is. Figure out _whose_ it is. Figure out who found it." And then, as an afterthought, "clean it up."

"Dwight." Laura spoke up, voice shaking uncharacteristically. "Dwight has those kits that can tell if blood is human."

"Go get him. _Subtly_," Justin ordered, not even bothering to question why Dwight would have such a thing.

Charlie threw his key to Laura, who proceeded to climb out the window as if it were the ordinary method of coming and going.

Charlie laughed silently before turning back to Justin. He mentally forced himself to keep his face up instead of letting it fall back into the worry he was feeling. Justin needed him to be strong – to hold him together – and Charlie would be damned if he wasn't. "We'll worry about cleaning once Dwight's gotten what he needed. So, the container…"

Justin looked up at Charlie enviously. Here he was, the one with actual experience with death and violence, and _he_ was the one falling apart. Maybe that was the reason it was so crushing – the idea of the brutality of his gang days catching up with the home he had made for himself here. And when Charlie smiled at Justin reassuringly, Justin's envy faded into the feeling that he was the luckiest person in the world. He threw his arms around Charlie and buried his face in Charlie's neck.

"It's okay," Charlie whispered, running his hand over Justin's head lightly. "You can do this. If anyone can do this, it's you."

Justin pulled away and sniffled. Charlie leaned in to lightly kiss him before wiping away a stray tear that was left on Justin's face instead of Charlie's neck.

"It was that stupid container that I was bitching about last week," he muttered, trying to be strong as Charlie seemed to think he could be – as strong as he had once been in his youthful naivety.

"Did you complain about it to anyone else?"

"Just Merril. She said it wasn't hers, but she found it equally clumsy and space wasting."

"I guess that rules out her and Spencer – she'd know if it was Spencer's, right?"

Justin shrugged. "I think the fact that it's a vat of blood rules out Merril. And Spencer, I guess."

"Well, if there's a stand out for who would keep a jar of blood in your freezer, wouldn't that have been your first thought?" Charlie mocked, and Justin smirked in response.

"That's just it; I know these people. They're weird, and they're quirky, and they have some crazy problems, but none of them would hurt anyone."

"Maybe we'd have more luck approaching it from who found it? How did you find out about it, anyway?" Charlie wondered, having not seen the mess for himself.

"Someone spilled it. All over the kitchen table."

"Like, intentionally?" Justin's terse answer couldn't possibly give Charlie the right image.

"No, not really…" Justin thought. "More like they dropped it and it spilled everywhere."

"Like they realized it was blood and freaked out?" Charlie also let himself think aloud. "But then wouldn't they have been the one to tell everyone else?"

Justin stood up and began looking for his phone. "I know who found it."

"Who?" Charlie stared at Justin eagerly.

"Andy. Andy's a hematophobe. He nearly honked up on Emil the one time he had a nose bleed."

Charlie barely knew the junior in question – he was the younger brother of Hanover's last prefect - but Emil was a mutual friend. "So why didn't he say something?"

"Andy was one of the boys who weren't here," Justin mumbled, hanging up the phone when he didn't answer.

He pulled the phone down and sent the boy a text to come see him as soon as he was back.

"You're thinking Windsor weird isn't that weird after all, aren't you?" Justin sighed, lying down next to Charlie on his bed.

Charlie laid back, grabbed Justin's hand, and inched up to the boy. He laughed, "Yep."

As the boys sighed, content to think about nothing for a few minutes, Dwight and Laura climbed through the window. Justin and Charlie sat up, letting go of each other's hand and separating as subtly as possible.

"Seriously, Laura, there's a door," Justin spat exasperatedly, adding softly, "Everybody already knows you here, anyway."

Laura shrugged and gave her trademark smug smile. "That's no fun."

Dwight cleared his throat softly and awkwardly. "The blood?"

Justin rose to show Dwight down to the kitchen. Charlie looked at Dwight peculiarly. "Dwight, why on earth do you have that blood kit?"

"It's very important, in the occult, to know what kind of blood you're dealing with."

Charlie decided he'd rather not know and let Justin and Dwight leave the room. Laura took Justin's spot on the bed and turned to Charlie.

"Dwight knows, ya know?"

"Excuse me?" Charlie raised an eyebrow.

"About you and Justin. I told him."

"Precisely how does my relationship with your brother come up in your ghost hunting?" Charlie whispered angrily, not sure who he was worried about overhearing the conversation.

Laura didn't answer.

"WAIT – " Charlie's voice rose, but since he had been whispering, it still came out softly. "Are you and Dwight?"

He didn't feel compelled to finish the accusation. When Laura looked away, he knew he was right.

"Don't tell Justin," she begged. "He barely likes Dwight as it is, without going crazy overprotective brother, on him."

Charlie laughed. "_I'm_ the one who isn't Dwight's biggest fan. Justin likes Dwight – he reminds him of you."

"Why don't you like Dwight?" Laura asked, not bothering to hide her offense, but trying to hide the pride she felt at her brother's unknowing approval.

"I don't _dislike_ Dwight," Charlie lay back down. "He's just a nuisance. Like the twins. Except at least I sort of understand the brand of crazy that the twins subscribe to."

"Are you seriously gonna make me say 'he's just misunderstood?'" Laura laughed, and Charlie followed. "This is getting way too romance novel on me."

Charlie laughed and tilted his head toward Laura with a sudden knowing look on his face. "He's the reason you're always here, isn't he?"

Laura blushed so softly that Charlie almost didn't notice. "Guilty."

"I'll try to get Justin to go easy on you."

"You're going to be the best brother-in-law ever," Laura grinned, and now it was Charlie's turn to blush. She paused before stuttering, "Charlie…I – The one time I was here… at Valentine's Day."

"Yea, what about it? Is that when you and Dwight met?"

"Well yea, but that's not - There was blood on the stairs. When Justin brought me back to the dorm it was night time, but I could still see it. But in the morning it was gone, and I thought maybe I was just seeing things. But now, I don't think I was seeing things."

"Why didn't you tell Justin?" Charlie scolded. "Then or now?"

"Then…I thought I saw it wrong. And now…he looked like he was going to crack under any more weight. If I don't tell him before I leave, will you tell him? He should know."

Dwight and Justin interrupted before Charlie could answer, pushing briskly through the door.

"It's not human," Justin declared with relief.


	2. The Queens of Secrets and Madness

**As usual, I don't own Glee or CP Coulter's Dalton, just a few characters and the writing are my own.**

**Thank you for your lovely reviews! ****Enjoy!**

It was three and a half weeks until Charlie remembered what Laura had asked of him, and he couldn't quite figure out what reminded him as he left his final class of the day. Maybe it was Dwight bolting through the hallways with a strange smile on his face. Maybe it was seeing Andy whisper something, with a frightened expression, to the boy next to him. It was _not_ the minor screaming match that Julian and Logan were having in the main hallway. This was, in fact, the reason Charlie forgot his almost-promise for the second time.

What was strange about this scene was not Julian and Logan fighting. This was a fairly common event, though not usually public. But Logan had taken his medication today; the look in his eyes was unmistakable to most people who frequently talked to the boy. Somehow, Julian had gotten a rise out of him anyway.

Logan didn't make himself available to many people, so most did _not_ notice the strangeness of the scene unfolding around them. This was fortunate for Julian, who would not have to explain how easy he found it to anger Logan – especially on his medication – or why exactly he wanted to anger Logan. And since many of the students had started eavesdropping after the fight had already began, Julian would not have to explain to most people why he had picked the fight. He would have to explain to Derek, though. Derek always wanted an explanation.

An explanation for why Julian had made every career decision he'd ever made. An explanation for why Logan and Julian were keeping their relationship a secret. And an explanation for the fight that the two had started for everyone to see.

Julian's explanation was this: He hated Logan on his medicine. He mocked Logan for it endlessly, and this was the secret to angering the emotionally dulled boy. Sometimes Julian mocked Logan with the sole intention of angering him, but mostly he just hated to see Logan devoid of life.

So when Julian made a snarky remark about Logan not deserving a say in the Stuart trio's plans because he didn't have an opinion when he was drugged, Logan jumped straight into a fight. That's what Julian wanted, right?

Some days, Logan had to force himself to be angry at Julian. Julian's 'secret to angering Logan' worked as well as it did only because Logan let it. He hated not feeling just as much as Julian hated to watch it, and lately, he had found all of his actions were motivated by the desire to give Julian what he wanted. But he couldn't tell Julian he loved him, and he couldn't stop taking the medication. Derek didn't even have to make him anymore; it became his own sick compulsion to try to fix what was broken. And to some extent, Logan felt like the only thing he could give Julian was a little bit of control.

So he 'fumed' when they walked out of their classroom, and he turned around with a whish, slamming Julian into the wall half heartedly, when he began to make a comment.

"You think it's okay to bring up my medication in front of the whole classroom?" It was a strange sensation to have to force yourself to use the emotion that you should have meant.

"Well it's good to know that those stupid drugs don't take away your ego as well – not everyone in the classroom was listening to us, you arrogant prick," Julian didn't move from his place against the wall.

"Fuck you, Jules. There are easier ways to get attention." Logan couldn't muster up the energy to yell, but he at least made the anger sound convincing, perhaps out of truth. "Just because you don't like me like this doesn't mean you can just embarrass me out of taking them."

"_I_ like you much better when you're drugged," a foolishly brave Windsor sophomore had sneered. "At least then you only beat up your own house."

It was the wrong thing to say. Logan and Julian had turned to the boy with such speed and synchronization that it almost looked rehearsed. The anger on Julian's face was much more believable than the anger on Logan's. Fortunately, Julian didn't notice this, or it would have made him angrier.

"I swear to god, kid," Julian seethed. "Get the fuck out of this conversation-"

"Or that won't be true anymore," Logan interrupted with his newly mastered frighteningly calm rage.

"Hey, don't threaten him!" Wes cut in, lightly pushing the imprudent sophomore out of Julian's immediate glare.

Charlie bolted down the hall toward the fight as he saw several of the other Windsor boys step forward to what looked frustratingly like a face-off stance. It was rapidly growing into a mob screaming incoherently. What was most frustrating for Charlie was that he couldn't really hear what the boys were saying, but could see by their expressions that it was escalating too quickly.

"We still owe them for stealing Pavarotti!" a young Stuart Warbler called out from the crowd.

And then, just as he was about to reach the wall of Windsors, Charlie heard Kurt's voice.

"Would you guys just cool it?" Kurt yelled, clearly as frustrated as Charlie.

And for some reason, Kurt's plea was met with success. Julian, seeing Logan's face fall back to its emotionless state, was too defeated to continue the Stuart Windsor war that he was barely a part of.

"Alice is right," Evan admitted.

"This isn't the right time for this battle," Ethan finished.

Kurt looked slightly defeated. "That's not what I meant."

* * *

><p>Adam sat in the middle of the large couch of the Hanover common room. He kept thinking that he should go back to his room where he could journal all of the thoughts he had about the conversation he had just overheard. They were running through his head too fast for him to even pick one out.<p>

Logan hurting Julian as usual – did anyone else catch that tragic face on Julian after he saw Logan's reaction to Kurt? – and Julian was so quick to exit the Stuart Windsor fight. Adam couldn't help but think he looked broken, and the thought angered him.

But for some reason his legs wouldn't move from where he sat, and so this is how Justin found him – sitting in a slightly dark room looking somewhere between star struck and stoned.

"Are you okay, Adam?" the prefect leaned into the room, scaring Adam.

The lights were off in the room, but the sun came in through the windows and faintly lit the room with heavy shadows. Nearly a month ago, they were in the same places, and neither boy missed the parallelism.

"I'm fine," he mumbled looking at the boy in the doorway.

It was even the same conversation. But Adam knew that this time he could not count on Andy to interrupt.

"_You just fainted in the hallway; I doubt you're fine. How's your head?" Justin asked, reaching for the back of his head as a gesture._

"_Fine."_

_Justin didn't care that Adam wasn't talkative. He wouldn't have pushed it further, and he didn't have to. Someone called his name from down the hall. The boy that approached him was lanky and even taller than Justin._

"_Justin," Andy repeated, his pointed face wearing a frown. "You, uh, wanted to see me?"_

_Justin turned around, pulling the door to the common room closed behind him as he stepped into the hallway. He left it open a crack and moved a few steps away. Adam rose slowly and stood behind the door, listening discretely to the conversation._

"_I want you to explain to me what you know about the kitchen," Justin instructed, surprisingly menacing for the hushed tone he used._

_Tempted to begin explaining ovens and refrigerators, but filled with guilt, Andy sighed and ignored his immediate sarcastic response. "I don't know why I finally decided to look at that stupid bottle. I was trying to find some food and I saw it and I just got curious. But then I saw what it was and I freaked out and I dropped it._

"_I, uh, couldn't even be in the same room as it-" Andy gagged a little just at the thought of blood. "I ran out behind the dorm thinking I was going to throw up –"_

"_Sick, Andy. Go use the pan next time; someone has to clean that up," Justin interrupted._

"_I didn't, anyway," Andy muttered. "I just ended up lying out on the grass and falling asleep. Until you called and woke me up."_

"_So that's all you know about the container?"_

"_Yea. Same as everyone else; it was just that stupid thing taking up the whole freezer."_

_Justin sighed and Adam heard him begin to walk away. "Thanks, Andy."_

"If you say so," Justin raised his eyebrow and left Adam sitting in the common room, just as he had a month earlier.

* * *

><p>Charlie followed the twins back into Windsor, trailing slowly behind. He wasn't sure how Kurt had managed to calm the storm with a simple request, but the knowing smirk that Evan and Ethan would give each other every minute or so concerned Charlie greatly. They were scheming.<p>

He silently hoped that they managed this scheme without involving him – he really did like to see the Stuart boys suffer through pranks – and that it wasn't actually violent. He always felt compelled to cut the violent pranks off before anyone got hurt. It was such a shame, since Charlie always understood and appreciated the intricacy of each prank.

He entered the dorm on this thought – remembering fondly some of the tricks he helped the Tweedles accomplish last year – but was quickly interrupted by their call from down the hall.

"Charlie!" Charlie heard the first Tweedle call, incapable of telling who it was, especially without seeing them. But Charlie was kidding himself; he couldn't always tell them apart when he _could_ see them.

"Why is Laura Bancroft in our common room?" the second finished.

Charlie let his head fall back in frustration as he dragged himself toward the voices. He knew that it was useless to hope that Laura wasn't really in their common room – of course she was. And when he turned into the room, he was not surprised to see her, grinning with her constant confidence, sitting on the center of the large couch.

"Alright, come with me," he mumbled angrily, waving his hand to signal the same thing.

She followed happily enough, smiling at the twins as they waved her goodbye. With the same happiness, she sat on Charlie's bed as he closed the door behind him.

"Laura, you have got to be kidding me. Can't you just _skype_ with Dwight?" Laura laughed at Charlie's suggestion, so he continued. "_Go home_. Don't you have classes?"

"It's so boring at my school," she whined. "Plus Dwight told me something weird was going on and I thought I'd come help him investigate."

"Laura, school is not supposed to be this crazy. You're _supposed_ to be there to _learn_ and you're _supposed_ to be _bored_," he lectured – wondering why Laura seemed to prefer his brother speeches to Justin's. He sighed and changed his tone. "I can't be mad that you and Dwight are happy – he's been a lot less pushy about the salt stuff since you've been in the picture."

"The salt stuff? Chaz, you really should listen to Dwight about protecting the house."

Charlie laughed. "I forget that you're one of them."

"One of them?" Laura sounded offended. "You mean the Serendipity Hill Hunters?"

"Yea, sure, that," Charlie wasn't particularly interested. "Look, Laura, if you go home now, I won't tell Justin that you were here."

"That's a lie; you tell him everything. And besides, this is important. I've never met Lucas or Morgan or Sadie. I've only ever met Dwight and that was just luck – I didn't even know he went to Justin's school."

"Wait, you knew Dwight before you came here?"

"Yea, I found them online."

Charlie expected her to explain more, but concluded that she was mad at him. "If it's important to you, run off and I can at least stall Justin from collecting you."

Laura gave Charlie a forced smile and left his room, presumably to wander into Dwight's, but Charlie pretended he didn't know this.

* * *

><p>Julian had walked in angry silence back to Stuart, ignoring Derek's many phone calls. Logan noticed as Julian put his phone away without answering.<p>

"Derek?" he asked, eager to break the silence. He held open the Stuart door for the boy behind him.

"Yea. Thank God he's got practice for a little while still; the longer I can avoid him impeaching me, the better," Julian grumbled, still not ready to talk happily.

"Impeach? Tell me again why I can't call you a drama queen?" Logan joked, trying to get Julian in better spirits.

"I'm not in the mood, Logan," Julian entered his room, not expecting the blonde boy to follow after him.

"Well whose fault is that?" Logan snarled, and Julian turned around in surprise. Logan approached the boy slowly. "You're the one who was trying to piss me off and now you're mad that it worked?"

"Forgive me for having an opinion –"

Julian was cut off by Logan pinning him against the wall. In a low voice that was laced with a growl, Logan challenged the boy in his grasp, "You were either trying to embarrass me or piss me off; either way you don't get to be mad at me."

"And I suppose your 'sexy face' is supposed to keep me from being mad?" Julian smirked, knowing that it was doing just that. Logan's feral stare made Julian's stomach do back flips.

"No, you having no reason to be mad is supposed to keep you from being mad," Logan returned Julian's smirk. He leaned in and slowly began kissing Julian's neck.

"You ass…" Julian said –breathlessly and unconvincingly.

Julian leaned into Logan's lips and tilted his head back to expose more of his neck. Logan changed his grip from pushing Julian into the wall to pulling him closer. His left hand slid quickly from Julian's arm to the back of his neck. Julian hummed softly, and Logan could no longer resist the urge to move his attention to Julian's face.

As soon as Logan had pressed his lips against Julian's, the boys had begun the passionate dance for dominance that they replayed every kiss. It was a game that neither ever won, but instead every time either had the upper hand, the other fought more. This was how they quickly ended up on Julian's bed with Logan fumbling for whatever item of clothing he could reach and Julian's hands tangled in Logan's hair.

There was a knocking at the door that would have distracted most, but Logan and Julian could not be persuaded to notice anything but each other. The knocking continued and so the ignoring did too.

"Julian, you're going to have to explain yourself to me sooner or later!" Derek yelled through the door, suspecting that his friend was there even though he wasn't answering. "And what's with the riot in the common room? The sophomores look like they're going to war…"

* * *

><p>When Andy walked back into his room, Emil was asleep. It was mid afternoon – he was back earlier than usual since practice had ended early - and Andy quickly concluded that his roommate had to have gone to sleep immediately after his classes. He tried to tell himself not to worry – maybe Emil had just had a rough day – but Andy had the sneaking suspicion that he knew why Emil was tired.<p>

At first, Andy panicked. Should he try to look through Emil's things? The fear that Emil was using again hit Andy like a truck, and he desperately wished he was mature enough to have immediate control over the situation. He abandoned the idea of searching Emil's belongings quickly and instead found he was growing angrier and angrier – he felt betrayed.

Grabbing some homework for distraction, Andy left the room with a slam of the door. He hoped it woke Emil up.

"You okay there?"

Andy turned to see the Windsor prefect walking down the hall. He knew who Charlie was - his older brother, Matt, had played ball with him and he was always over hanging out with Justin – but he couldn't recall ever talking to him before.

"Yea, I'm fine," Andy tried to be polite as he walked down the hall and toward the boy.

Charlie stared at Andy with curiosity, but passed him and approached Justin's door. He knocked as he opened the door instead of waiting for Justin to answer it.

Justin sat on his bed with homework sprawled out in front of him with a distressed look on his face. As he looked up to see Charlie, he instantly grinned. Charlie gently closed the door and walked over to the bed. In an uncharacteristically affectionate mood, he leaned down and left a small kiss lightly on Justin's lips.

"Well hello there," Justin grinned, raising an eyebrow at Charlie's affection. "What did I do to deserve that?"

Charlie shrugged, "Nothing in particular. You just looked like you needed it."

Justin squinted at Charlie, not quite believing his answer. After a moment, he mimicked Charlie's shrug and moved over so the boy could sit beside him. Charlie quickly took the hint and sat down against his friend. Taking a page from this new book of affection, Justin draped his arm around Charlie and pulled him closer.

"Have you started your history essay?" Charlie asked after making himself comfortable.

Maybe for another couple this would have ruined a moment, but they had come together out of friendship, and somehow Justin couldn't help but think that their mundane conversation was more romantic than any sappy line he could think of.

"Yea, that's what I was working on. I can't seem to make myself write it," Justin mumbled, frustrated with himself. "It's like I can't think anymore."

"The blood thing still?" Charlie turned his head to meet Justin's eyes, but because he was already so close, he ended up with his head against Justin's shoulder.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to handle this. Everyone's still a little freaked out, but it's not like I've got any more to go off of."

"What about all the other weird things? The knife?" _And the blood on the stairs_. It dawned on Charlie that he _still _hadn't told Justin about Laura's secret.

"What, the missing kitchen knife?" Justin's face scrunched in confusion. "I didn't think that had anything to do with…Now it just got creepier."

"Justin, I have something to tell you," Charlie sat up, worried and stumbling over his words. "And I'm sorry. I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you, or that Laura didn't tell you –"

"Charlie, I refuse to believe that you're leaving me for my sister, but that's what it sounds like you're saying," Justin tried to make a joke out of it, but would be a little embarrassed to admit that he spent a second with this fear very real. "Get on with it."

"No – Laura told me about something else weird in Hanover." Charlie decided to just spit it out. "When she was here at Valentine's Day, you dragged her back at night and she said she saw blood on the stairs. She was sure of it."

This scared Justin more. "I didn't see anything - Why didn't she tell me?"

"She thought she was seeing things until the kitchen incident. And then…"

"Then?" Justin insisted angrily.

"Then you were broken and we couldn't stand to put any more pressure on you – "

"WE?" Justin rose from the bed and spun to face Charlie angrily. "She told you _then_? Charlie that was a month ago!"

"I'm _sorry_, Justin –" Charlie followed suit and stood up, so that they stood facing each other across the bed.

"You kept this from me for a month? Charlie, what the fuck?"

"I wasn't keeping it from you on purpose – I just forgot."

"That's bull shit, Charlie," Justin waved his arms with rage. "You just _said_ that you and Laura didn't want to tell me. Because you thought I couldn't handle it? Awesome, Chaz. Glad to know I'm a baby you have to coddle. That's exactly what I want from this relationship."

"Justin, you're overreacting-"

"Get out Charlie. I'll stay here overreacting and you can go keep some more secrets from me."

Charlie gave a single loud laugh. "Says the king of secrets. If I had a nickel for every thing you keep from me-"

"That's not fair; those aren't my secrets-" Justin interrupted loudly.

"And Laura's secret wasn't mine!"

"What Laura told you wasn't a _secret _until you made it one," Justin sneered. "She should've told me. You should've told me."

"Why?" Charlie matched Justin's volume. "So you could _still_ have no idea what to do?"

"Get out." Justin repeated it with more firmness and pointed to the door. His eyes were cold and his jaw was clenched. "I'm serious. Go."

Charlie was livid and confused and had nothing else to say. So he did.

* * *

><p>Andy had ended up in the common room, and found Adam in the same state Justin had left him in.<p>

"Hey, Adam," he mumbled nonchalantly, sitting himself down at a table without expecting the boy to respond.

"Hi," Adam had muttered back.

And for twenty minutes, that had been their conversation. Andy did his homework and Adam stared out the window from his spot on the couch. But Andy wasn't working on his homework as much as he was fuming and cursing angrily under his breath.

"Uhm," Adam stopped looking out the window to observe the boy at the table. "Are you okay, Andy?"

Andy glanced back at Adam, having forgotten he was in the room. "Yea, I'm fine. Emil's just ticking me off."

"Oh," Adam pretended he needed no further explanation, but, in actuality, he wasn't sure if he _wanted_ further explanation. He didn't really like to get in the middle of some of the Hanover drama. Not to mention, his roommate had a tendency to gossip, and Adam was pretty sure he had said something about Emil's drug problems and covering up his withdrawal last year. Though how they managed to cover up a drug addiction and recovery was beyond Adam.

This entire thought process was why Adam didn't like to get involved. He was an over-thinker. And his over-thinking was better spent on Julian, or people who he valued. People who were nice to him. Emil had always rubbed him the wrong way.

Andy had gone back to his homework, and Adam had every intention of leaving the conversation be, until Andy's head fell flat against the table. Adam jumped an inch off the couch.

"Uhm…"

"I wish Matt or Avery was here…" Andy mumbled against the table, and Adam could barely hear him.

"Oh." Adam wondered if his minimalist answers would deter Andy from speaking, but Andy was talkative and Adam doubted this.

"I can't help him," Andy whispered, turning his head so that it still lay against the table, but was now facing Adam. "I know you heard; last year I just freaked out and ran to Matt. I'm such a wuss."

Now that Andy was looking at him, face scrunched in a pout, Adam could see he wasn't getting out of this conversation. At least he sort of liked Andy – Andy treated him like a friend even though they barely talked.

"Matt was prefect though, wasn't he?" Adam tried to sympathize. "It's not weird to involve the prefect."

"Yea, but I was just running to my big brother," he whined. "It's just too serious of a problem; I can't see him like that again. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to watch…"

"It can't be too bad, yet," Adam thought aloud. "He doesn't look sallow or anything."

"Well," Andy pushed his lips to the corner of his mouth, making one of his weird faces that the boys liked to mock him for. "I don't even know…I just – it started with him being tired all the time last time, and now every time he sleeps at a weird hour I panic. I can't ever let it get too bad again. I can't –"

"Andy," Adam noticed the protective tone in the boy's voice for his older friend. It was sweet, and Adam couldn't help but realize he _was_ sympathizing with the boy. "Just talk to him about it first. Or never let him out of your sight – then you'll know."

Andy laughed at the advice, but considered it. How was it fair of him to accuse Emil without even knowing if he was just going crazy?

"Andy?"

"Yea, Adam?"

"You're drooling on your book."

Andy sat up and stared at the small wet spot on the paper in front of him. Maybe this was a sign that he should go back to his room.


	3. The Ill Made Knave

**For your reading pleasure, chapter 3! I still do not own CP Coulter's Dalton or Glee, but the story and OCs are still mine.**

Sometimes when Logan thought about the other prefects, he consciously realized that Justin looked out for him. It was in these moments that he let himself wonder if he lived up to the expectations that Justin must have made for him. He wished he did – it seemed to Logan that he never met the expectations he was held to. He was never what his dad wanted him to be. He was never what a senator's son should be. At school, he was never what a prefect should be. He was never what a friend should be. And he was certainly never what a boyfriend should be.

Lately, as his mind was always preoccupied with letting Julian down, Logan found himself considering these failures at Dalton. Miraculously the Stuarts hadn't decided to pick a new prefect, and Logan wondered if he owed them a renewed effort - Derek and Julian, the rest of the Stuarts or even Justin and Charlie.

His problem with this was that he wasn't sure he had renewed effort in him. He had managed to screw up so much at Dalton that the idea of fixing all of these things was a task too daunting for him to even consider. But Julian had approached him with love when Logan was at his lowest point, and Logan was realizing now that this confession motivated the only attempt at repentance Logan had made.

At first Logan thought Julian might distract him. Then Logan thought that this was a way for him to apologize for his years of terrible friendship – it didn't matter that he didn't feel the need to apologize to Derek. But then this qualifier weighed on Logan's mind until he concluded that his feelings for Julian must be genuine. It was a thought that terrified Logan, and reminded him of all of the mistakes he had made and was liable to make again.

What if he hurt Julian like he hurt all of his ex-boyfriends? Would the renewed effort he had just realized he was putting into his relationship with Julian be better spent on his prefect duties? Would he be any better at fixing those problems? And suddenly he was overwhelmed again.

Maybe if Logan hadn't been plagued by the prospect of fixing the problems he made for himself, he would have been able to stop the gears of Stuart scheming that were already in motion. But he hadn't, he didn't, and the young reckless Stuarts were already organizing their supplies into more damaging arrangements.

* * *

><p>Andy, fresh from his conversation with Adam, burst into his room to find Emil awake and absentmindedly searching for something in the room. The taller boy set his books down and observed his friend looking slightly frantic.<p>

"Hey," Emil greeted Andy distractedly, barely looking up from his search.

Determined to find the answers to questions that Emil's search only reinforced, Andy grabbed Emil's right arm, just below the elbow, and pulled it straight so he could see the inner crook. Emil fought against Andy unsuccessfully, jerking his arm, only to have it pulled straight again.

"This isn't news to you," Emil grunted, staring behind Andy angrily.

Andy let go and grabbed Emil's left arm, fighting an even larger struggle to keep it straight. With one good look, Andy began to fume.

"But this is," Andy yelled, pointing to the fresher marks on the crook of Emil's left elbow. "I thought this wasn't a problem anymore!"

"It's not, Andy," Emil pulled away as he felt Andy's grip loosen and walked to the other side of their shared room. "I ran into an old friend over break and we reminisced. It's been months. It's _not_ a problem. What even brought this up?"

"Emil, this isn't a problem that you get over; it's _always_ a problem!" Andy screamed, ignoring Emil's question.

"What is _your_ problem?"

"You cannot be serious, Emil! How _old_ are you? You know how stupid you're being."

Andy's face was bright red and Emil's was quickly following suit.

"I'm not the one acting like a little kid, Andy," Emil gritted his teeth. "This isn't a PSA. I'm not going to die just because I used once over break."

Andy turned away from Emil, his mind considering the word "once," and tempted to use this as an excuse to drop it and run from the confrontation.

"Don't you remember where you were a year ago?" he pressed, in spite of himself.

Emil didn't answer. It was a clear answer for both of them.

"Why can't you just let it go? I don't need this from you. I got enough hell from Avery and Matt when they were prefect. _Justin_ leaves me alone about it. Why can't you?" Emil muttered.

"_Justin_ doesn't know that this is still a problem. And you think I don't remember the hell they gave you? You should've seen the hell Matt gave _me_ over you. Can you imagine; I didn't even _know_ then. He _knew_ that I didn't know – he could see it on my face. But he gave me shit anyway, so I would feel even guiltier."

"Matt was a bit of an ass," Emil conceded. "At least to you. That doesn't mean you have any reason to be mad at me. I told you; I'm fine."

"How dumb do you think I am?"

Andy and Emil locked eyes and neither said anything.

"You can't just dip your foot in, Emil," Andy added, still in lecture mode. "Maybe you could once, and maybe someone else could. But I know you, Emil. And I can't see you go through that again."

"Worried that you'll feel guilty about it?" Emil resented Andy's implied motivation, and his jeer cut Andy like a knife. "As _flattering_ as your guilt is for me-"

"Emil, stop. I don't want you to stop hurting yourself so I don't feel guilty; I want you to stop hurting yourself so you _stop hurting yourself_. You're my best friend, you idiot."

Emil kept his face straight and did not respond. Andy's lip slid slightly to the side and Emil imagined he was gritting his teeth. Andy was trying as hard as he could to stay – to not run like he did before, with Emil last year, with Danny freshman year - but as he stared at Emil's blank face, Andy let himself give in. He slid through their door faster than Emil could register the loss.

* * *

><p>Andy would barely be able to describe the scene he stepped out to. After all, he only spent a few moments in the midst of it with clear eye sight. But as he left Hanover, he wandered toward the large crowd in between the Stuart and Windsor dorms, hoping to find a distraction. He would get more than he bargained for.<p>

It looked like a snowball fight, or laser tag, where two crowds had originally faced each other to attack, but they had since dispersed into a mob of chaos. What struck Andy as _most_ like a snow ball fight were the snow balls – a sight particularly bizarre considering that it was spring. It seemed the Windsors were equipped with these out-of-season weapons, as well as nerf guns, and the Stuarts were equipped with water pistols. It didn't seem revealing, but Andy noticed – and then promptly forgot – that only the Stuarts were wearing mess clothes; the Windsors were still in their uniforms for the most part.

Seeing a silly play fight unfold before him, Andy was eager to join, and snuck toward Wes, who he saw armed with a nerf gun. As he found himself among the mock war scene, his nose twitched – 'water' soaked victims smelled sickening and a few white blazers looked decidedly yellow. A distinct whistle went off and things seemed to stop momentarily. Just as Andy turned to see what caused the lack of commotion, something sprayed him in the wide-eyed face. He dropped to the floor, eyes ferociously torn between not wanting to stay open and burning like the hottest pepper.

Andy would not _see_ anything more, beginning with the reason the Stuart who blew the whistle did so – Logan, Derek and Julian were running toward the scene. Just as Andy had, the trio had stopped at the whistle. But Logan quickly saw the boys grabbing for something in trees and bushes. They were little plastic guns of some sort, and just as he saw a boy pull the trigger, he dodged the stream it shot. Unfortunately, his dodge sent it straight into Derek's unprepared stare.

"HEY!"

Logan's shout was deafening and stopped even the Windsors, though a careful observer would see that it stopped only the twins, who promptly signaled those who hadn't already to cease fire and look at Logan. But a handful of people were in the same position as Andy and Derek, clutching their face in pain.

Stopping after every word and with a frightening resolve, Logan ordered to the Stuarts, "Get your asses into the common room. Now."

That same careful observer might see the consideration playing on each Stuart's face – deciding whether they should listen to the leader they had recently decided to keep around. Slowly, seeing their friends following, the boys filed off of the grass and back toward the dorm.

Logan glanced around the area, observing who was present and whether any of the injured were not Windsors. He grabbed his phone and went to dial Charlie, but hovered over Kurt's name instead. He _was_ practically the mother of the group, and someone had been stupid enough to let Reed into the fight, so of course he had ended up among the injured. But Logan saw Julian crouch down to help Derek out of the corner of his eye, and he had thought no more on the subject, flipping through to Charlie's name.

"Where are you?" Logan barked, and after waiting for a response added, "You need to get back to the dorm as soon as humanly possible. I've sent my boys back to Stuart, but there was some sort of fight…"

He surveyed the Windsors again, who were now huddled around Reed, Blaine and another blinded Windsor who Logan did not recognize. He noticed Andy for the first time and focused back on his phone conversation.

"Looks like some Hanovers are hurt too-" he added, and when Charlie abruptly ended the call he stared at his phone, clueless.

"What?" Julian looked up at his perplexed boyfriend.

"Charlie just told me to call Justin and hung up."

Logan could see from Julian's expression that he hadn't thought it was weird that Charlie wouldn't call his best friend himself, so he began to look through his contacts.

"Okay? So call him, and then help me get Derek back to the dorms –"

Julian was interrupted by the boy in question. Before hearing Derek's protests that he needed no help, Logan found himself explaining the situation to Justin over the phone. But just as Andy had not seen the rest of Logan's clean up, he did not see that Emil had decided to follow him and was just showing up to the scene.

"It looks like the only Hanover here is, uhm," Logan struggled to remember the boy's name. "Matt's brother. But Emil just showed up, so I'll have him take him back to Hanover. Just…check in on him, I guess?"

* * *

><p>"I swear to God, I am going to <em>murder<em> those assholes –" Derek's eyes squinted in pain and he flailed in Logan and Julian's arms as they dragged him to his bathroom.

"Which assholes? Our sophomores or the Windsors?" Julian joked, rolling his eyes and helping sit Derek down.

"Both. I don't care. This fucking burns!"

Derek wiped the tears that were pouring from his eyes, as if his companions wouldn't notice, or as if they would think he was weak if they did notice. But the boys were not stupid, and couldn't care less that the pepper spray in Derek's eyes was causing him to well up.

Julian let the water in the sink run and gestured for Logan to help the blinded Stuart to the sink.

"Just try to flush it out," he instructed Derek, who fumbled messily at the running water.

Logan and Julian backed up, incapable of controlling their laughter at Derek's disastrous attempts, but having no desire to be as soaked as he was.

"I'm going to beat the crap out of them all –"

"Why don't you let me take care of that," Logan managed between laughs. "It's my job, right?"

Both Derek and Julian stopped to look at Logan, Derek doing so with his eyes barely visible beneath his narrow irritated eyelids.

"Since when do you play prefect well?" Julian snorted, and Derek, wincing, went back to his mission.

Logan shrugged. "I was thinking that, well, things are…_functioning_ with you guys now – and I'm not as wrapped up in my other shit – maybe I can worry about being a better prefect?"

Logan looked at Julian, wanting to say that maybe he could fix his other holes – because Julian had filled in several of the holes he used to feel – and when he had controlled the scene outside, he began to think that maybe he _could _live up to the expectations around him.

But instead he said nothing else and Julian stared at him bemused. Logan fell into Julian's eyes like a little kid looking for encouragement and Julian welcomed the warmth of the stare.

"Julian, I –"

"Oh hey hey," Derek interrupted, leaning up with his red eyes. "Just because I can't see right now doesn't mean I can't hear that tone. Julian, save the romance for when I'm not in the room, and Logan, go – what did you say? – _be a better prefect_."

Logan rolled his eyes – an act that Derek missed – and gave a small wave and smile to Julian as he turned to do as Derek said.

* * *

><p>Andy, his arm around Emil and supported by the shorter boy, had not said anything on the walk back to Hanover – save a few choice curses. But as Emil helped him sit down in their bathroom, he looked like to be both in deep contemplation and severe pain.<p>

"I'm going to get a wash cloth, I guess," Emil broke the silence, voicing the fact that he had no idea what to do.

"I can't see you like that again, Emil," Andy repeated the fear as if it might cut Emil deeper this time.

It annoyed Emil that Andy was still on this note, and knowing that he still couldn't tell Andy exactly what happened over break, he decided to change the subject through humor.

"Andy, I may be wrong, but I don't think you can see anything right now."

Andy laughed, tears slipping involuntarily out of his burning eyes. "Fine, if you don't want to talk about it – you know I hate conflict."

"Yes, Andy the great runner – both in track and social situations," Emil declared, running the cold water of the sink.

"Here, lemme just stick my eye under the water," Andy grunted, feeling for the sink where he knew it would be and righting himself.

Emil stood back, still holding the wash cloth he had grabbed.

"What the fuck did you get yourself into, Andy?" he asked as the boy in question washed his eyes.

"I don't even know – it looked like a silly game. I was gonna go talk to Wes and then there was piss and a whistle and my eyes burned-"

"What was that?"

"A whistle?"

"Before that?"

"Piss? Oh! Yea, I thought the Stuarts just had water guns but then I got closer and started smelling it – those guys are nasty."

"If I were a religious man, I would thank my god that I'm a Hanover. Their war just gets weird," Emil thought aloud.

Andy stood up and blinked several times. His eyes were still sore, but the burning was mostly gone and he figured it was as good as he would get. He grabbed the wash cloth Emil held awkwardly and dried off his face – he had managed to stay much drier than Derek had in his haste.

* * *

><p>Though Logan had been impressed with himself for calling Charlie instead of Kurt, he probably would have had the same conversation if he hadn't. Charlie had been standing beside Kurt when Logan called, and had quickly pulled the diva along with him as he rushed toward the scene.<p>

When they got back, the Windsors had taken everyone inside and only a few melting snow balls littered the ground outside. Kurt and Charlie ventured carefully inside, afraid of what they might find.

"Guys, where are you?" Kurt asked, looking around corners, but seeing no one in the hallway or common areas.

The emptiness was disconcerting to both Charlie and Kurt who headed toward the open door to Blaine's room. From the sounds of it, a large portion of Windsor was there, and one glance inside confirmed Charlie's suspicion.

"What happened?" Kurt asked, seeing Blaine laying in his bed, eyes closed, and Reed lying on the bed beside him.

"How badly are they hurt?" Charlie added, panicked.

"You're back!" Wes exclaimed.

"They're not hurt," one of the twins explained.

"Not badly," the other finished.

"It's just my eyes," Blaine groaned, and Kurt realized that the boys weren't sleeping.

"What happened to your eyes?" Kurt was torn between sitting down at his boyfriend's bed side or his best friend's.

As if he knew Kurt's thoughts, Reed waved toward Blaine without opening his eyes. He softly added, "There was pepper."

"They threw pepper at you?" Charlie asked, not believing the stupid statement. "And it worked?"

The twins laughed. Kurt sat down beside Blaine, placing his left hand at Blaine's head. He stroked his hair with one finger, hoping the gesture would be missed by the rest of the room.

"No," David corrected Charlie. "There was pepper _spray_ in – I don't even know what to call those –"

Charlie, too eager to get answers, interrupted. "Those snowballs on the ground?"

"No, those were ours…"

"…We thought they'd be a funny surprise some day."

"But then they ambushed us…"

"…And this seemed like a better purpose."

Charlie took in the Tweedles' explanation with a continued look of confusion. "So the pepper spray…?"

"They had little pepper spray guns," David clarified exasperatedly. "There's no way those are legal…"

"Pepper spray guns…?" Charlie had a feeling he wouldn't get any better explanation from the boys.

"What are you going to do?" Wes asked Charlie, as the prefect made his way to leave.

"I don't know. I'll figure something out with Logan," he paused before adding, "And Justin."

"Some good punishment?"

"Off with their heads?"

Charlie laughed and left the room, wishing he could text Justin about this like he normally would.

* * *

><p>It was another day before Justin decided he needed to talk to the other prefects. Andy was telling wild tales to the other Hanovers – who didn't really believe the exaggerations because Andy was prone to telling stories wrong when he saw fit – and they were becoming anxious. He and Charlie were still playing the most childish of silent wars around each other, but as Justin saw both of the other prefects in his line of vision, he grabbed Charlie and dragged him to where Logan stood across the way.<p>

"We need to have a meeting," he explained to the confused Logan and angry Charlie.

"Right," Logan conceded with no reluctance. "But not tonight; there's Warbler stuff. How about tomorrow after classes?"

Justin looked to Charlie who nodded.

"Okay with me," Justin completed. "My room?"

The other prefects nodded, and as quickly as they had come together, each left in a different direction.

By the time the next day had passed, Justin had dragged a table from the common room into his. He was pulling chairs up to the table when Charlie came in and the door shut behind him.

Both boys stared awkwardly at each other for a minute when Justin's phone buzzed. He looked down at the screen which read a new text from Logan: _Murdoch wants to talk after class, I'll be a bit late to the meeting. – Logan_

"Logan's running late," he muttered, now choosing to avoid eye contact with Charlie.

"Oh," Charlie paused.

Another beat passed before the boys simultaneously turned to each other.

"I'm sorry-"

"I'm sorry-"

They laughed softly, and Justin spoke up first. "I'm sorry; you were right. I was overreacting. It's just getting so restless here –"

"No, I'm sorry," Charlie interrupted. "_You_ were right. I should have told you sooner; life just kept getting in the way."

The boys were in an embrace before Charlie could finish his sentence. Charlie's arms wrapped around Justin's waist, and Justin lifted his up from where they had wrapped around Charlie's neck. He placed his hands softly at Charlie's cheeks and looked into his eyes.

"I love you, Chaz," he whispered sweetly. "And these two days were even shittier when you weren't here."

"I love you, too, Justin," Charlie smiled faintly and let the boy in his arms pull him into a kiss.

It was not the first time either had told the other 'I love you.' It would not be the last. It was not the most romantic kiss they shared, and it was not the least. But neither of these made the average kiss any less healing.

"How long will Logan be?" Charlie smirked, pulling only an inch away from Justin's lips.

"Not long enough," Justin laughed breathily.

Charlie placed a light kiss on Justin's lips before pulling away and making himself at home on Justin's bed. Charlie cleared his throat and Justin absentmindedly went to set out cups of water.

"Justin, now don't get mad again-"

Justin turned to Charlie and squinted in appeal.

"But Laura was here the other day," Charlie winced.

"The other day? Chaz, seriously, can't you tell me this stuff _at the time_?" But Justin sounded more incredulous than angry.

"I was _going to_ before we… had our fight." Charlie laughed at this last thought. "Look at that: our first fight. No one can tell us we aren't a real couple –"

"No one could tell us we're _a_ couple," Justin corrected with a laugh. "What happened with Laura?"

Charlie shrugged. "I told her to go home, but God knows she didn't."

"Then where'd she go?" Justin asked quickly, concern lacing his voice. He saw Charlie squint uncomfortably. "Chaz, you know something!"

Charlie made a face. He tried to repeat Justin's excuse from days earlier. "It's not my secret to tell?"

"Chaz, she's my _sister!_" Justin threw his arms up, but he still didn't sound angry – just worried.

Charlie grinned suddenly, equipped with an unexpected plan. "How about you tell me a secret that's not yours, and I'll tell you a secret that's not mine?"

"You can't be serious," Justin looked at Charlie like a parent looks at a child. Then his face fell. "You're serious?"

Charlie nodded enthusiastically.

"I swear to God, Chaz," Justin muttered, considering the least harmful thing to say. "Okay, so Matt –"

"Oh, come on, he's not even here anymore!" Charlie pouted, and Justin rolled his eyes.

"_Fine_," he pursed his lips. "Emil wasn't at a scholar's retreat that time he was gone for months."

"_No…_" Charlie's eyes widened with excitement. "No scholar's retreat lasts that long, I guess. Where was he?"

"Where was Laura?" Justin stared smugly at Charlie who smiled in return.

"Well played." Charlie knew Laura was going to hate him for this, but he figured she'd get over it. "She was with Dwight."

"Dwight? With the Hunters?" Justin did not understand, and tilted his head in confusion.

"Well…" Charlie grimaced a bit.

Justin contemplated what Charlie's expression meant before it swiftly hit him like a truck.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" Justin's voice boomed and Charlie wondered how many Hanovers could hear.

"I mean, they were meeting the other ghost people too," Charlie backpedaled. "They weren't _doing anything_, but they are together. I just - you should know."

Justin gritted his teeth as he processed what Charlie stumbled over. "Together."

"Mhm."

"How long?" Justin began pacing, considering the idea of his sister dating Dwight as if it were an idea he could reject or accept.

"I don't know," Charlie admitted. "Sometime between now and the fair."

Justin thought some more.

"If I could just –" Charlie tried to sound careful, but he wasn't sure that Justin was really that upset. "Where was Emil really?"

"Rehab," Justin waved his hand as if this was trivial information, but Charlie's jaw dropped.

"I will never look at him the same…"

Justin, out of his brotherly reverie, turned to Charlie and glared at him judgmentally. "This is why I don't tell you Hanover shit."

"Fair enough," Charlie smirked, and Justin couldn't help but return the smile. "But now I know your gossip is juicy – I'm only going to bother you more."

"Chaz, they tell me _everything_." Justin sat down next to Charlie and took his hand, hoping he could convince him otherwise. "That's how the Hanover thing works – you _trust_ your prefect."

"I'm only kidding," Charlie used his other hand to pat Justin's before stealing another small kiss. "Now where's Logan? Our houses are a mess!"

* * *

><p>Charlie had stayed over after the meeting, eager to be alone with Justin again. As he lay in bed beside the boy, arms tangled around each other, he relaxed. They hardly ever stayed over with each other because they were both apt to getting interrupted at all hours by prefect matters. But the two days of fighting had worn on the boys and they each longed for each other's company and touch.<p>

As Charlie lay in Justin's bed, he felt that he suddenly understood the attachment that the Brightmans had to each other, but this thought was quickly interrupted by the idea of Tweedle sex – after all, it's where his attachment to Justin had led him hours earlier – which disturbed Charlie greatly. He gagged faintly and Justin stirred.

"What was that?" the British boy asked sleepily.

"Gross thought," Charlie mumbled, hoping he wouldn't have to explain. "Don't ask."

"I'm clearly the sane one here," Justin chuckled, pulling Charlie against him.

"Says the boy who let _Logan Wright_ know we're dating," Charlie turned slightly to look Justin in the eye for a more efficient mocking.

"He already figured it out!" Justin shrugged awkwardly while still lying down. "Stop making this a big deal."

Charlie forced a smile briefly, but this quickly became real as Justin smiled in response.

"If I let this go can I get another secret?"

"Oh shut up, Chaz," Justin rolled his eyes and turned away from Charlie. Charlie took this opportunity to pull Justin in to a full body hug, and Justin settled in to his position as the little spoon.

* * *

><p><strong>Wondering what happened at the prefect meeting? The missing scene is featured in two of my old stories which you can find on my tumblr (jessseri tumblr com) or I'll post them on here (Prefect Meeting).<strong>


	4. The Clavell in the Winds

**Sorry for the wait! As always, I own neither Glee, or CP Coulter's Dalton. I'd really appreciate your reviews if you care to leave some.**

The idea of Logan and Julian dating had surprised Justin, but Justin found it growing on him as he watched Julian text in class and pretended he was texting Logan. Julian wasn't, but Justin was always a bit of a sap, and he'd never know he was wrong. He watched the boy periodically throughout class, and realized he'd found the ally he never knew he was looking for.

Luckily for Justin, as their teacher and other students left the room, Julian had been slow to collect his things.

"Hey, wait," Justin called, as the class filed out. "Do you think we made the right decision?"

"Are you talking to me?" Julian turned his head to see that he was the only one in the classroom.

Justin nodded, and Julian tried to remember the class they just sat through. Had they been involved in any decision making? Had he ever made _any_ decision with Justin?

"What decision, exactly?"

"Keeping it a secret," Justin half whispered. "You and Logan? Me and Charlie?"

Julian froze. Too many things were trying to enter his mind at once. Somehow Justin Bancroft knew that he and Logan were together. How many other people knew? He called it a secret, though, so somehow he had found out discretely. The fact that Charlie and Justin were dating was a faint question mark that barely registered with the actor.

"How –"

"Logan told us."

"US?"

Justin wasn't sure Julian's eyes could get any larger, but somehow their widening was still perceptible.

"Charlie and me. That's it." Justin wiped his hands across the air to enforce this idea.

"This is _not_ okay to talk about," Julian let his eyes shrink back to their normal size.

Justin sighed, too familiar with the fences people put around their lives. He smiled with half of his mouth, willing to let Julian go. "You're a secretive guy, aren't you? You would've fit in well at Hanover, Julian."

Julian saw that Justin wasn't going to press him further, and in this moment he felt a wealth of respect for the boy. People didn't let Julian have a private life, but Justin would. Before he had the chance to regret it, Julian rewarded the boy's sympathy, "I…What were you going to ask?"

"Just – Do you think we're making the right decision?"

Julian didn't understand. "Why are you with Charlie if you're not sure about him?"

"No, that's not what I meant – I meant do you think it's right to keep it a secret? It doesn't really seem fair…to them."

"Ah," Julian's eyebrows rose slightly as he considered the thought. "Well, why do _you_ want to keep it secret?"

"My parents. They expect me to find a wife here –"

"They sent you to an all-boys school to find a girl?" Julian asked incredulously.

"Well, no. They sent me here to straighten me out – but they still want me to find a wife."

"So you don't want your parents to find out that you don't want a _wife_?" Julian sat against a desk – it shook slightly at his weight - wondering if he'd get to his next class at all – let alone on time.

"That, and… It seems so final. Like the second people know, I'm gay." Following suit, Justin sat at the chair he stood in front of.

"Are you?"

Justin looked up slowly, and then down, like his eyes were searching his mind instead of the room. "No? I never thought so. But there's no question about how I feel about Chaz."

"Have there been other guys?"

"No."

Julian shrugged. "You don't have to know. Who gives a shit what other people think?"

Justin laughed and Julian glared, forgetting why he was consoling the boy in front of him.

"No, I mean," Justin's tone was lighter still. "I didn't mean to laugh. It's just, isn't that why you're keeping you and Logan a secret?"

"What?" Julian had forgotten how this conversation started; he still wasn't used to his relationship being brought up by anyone but Derek.

"Your career. You don't want your fans to know you're gay?"

"I'm not gay; I'm bi," Julian spat with fire. "But yea, that's why Logan thinks I don't want to tell anyone – my career."

"Logan _thinks_?"

Julian cursed Justin's powers of observation. He sighed and looked to the doorway out of habit and discretion. "It's not that simple, no."

Justin didn't push Julian again, and even though it compelled him to share, he couldn't help but feel himself resent Justin for being so understanding.

Julian sighed and continued in spite of himself, "I know that with my family and my potential, it wouldn't destroy my career if I came out as bi. Hell, even if it would, I would crush my career for Logan.

"I've been waiting for him to see me for _years_. Since freshman year. I've waited through all of his shit because I thought he was worth it – I _think_ he's worth it."

Justin bit the inside of his lip as he listened to Julian's hushed confession. He couldn't imagine Logan being worth Logan's crazy, but the faraway look in Julian's eyes convinced him that it was possible.

"So why keep it a secret?" Justin furrowed his brows and watched Julian's expression flinch.

"I've waited for him for three years –" Julian's voice broke as he continued. "I don't think for a second that Logan's as serious about this as I am. Maybe if he ever is…"

Julian didn't finish his thought and instead shrugged.

"You think he'll leave you?"

It was pushier than Justin had been the rest of the conversation, and it caught Julian off guard. Julian wondered how many times he had felt this unbalanced during their conversation, and silently thought about how fitting it was that the desk he leaned on wobbled with its uneven legs.

Julian wasn't answering and Justin regretted asking the question.

"I don't think he will," Justin added, deciding he had waited long enough. "The way he talked about you guys…He sounded smitten."

"I don't want to have this conversation anymore," Julian's voice broke and he began to hurry off the desk and toward the door.

"I'm sorry," Justin lifted his hand at the boy who was fleeing like a scared animal. "I didn't mean to…Make you uncomfortable."

He mumbled the last words uselessly, as Julian was already down the hallway.

* * *

><p>He was already going to miss the first half of class, so Julian had decided to skip it entirely. He sat down on a bench outside.<p>

The idea that Justin had planted in his mind should have been a happy one. Logan was smitten with him? Logan wouldn't leave him? There was nothing to stop Julian from wandering to the hope that Logan might love him eventually.

It was a petrifying thought.

It wasn't like he didn't dream that one day Logan would love him back. It was his goal, after all. But he had just gotten used to the idea that Logan was using him. And it was easier to walk on the leash he built for himself than to play freely with Logan. Julian was terrified at the thought of being set free.

And as the months had passed, Julian was terrified at the thought of being in a public relationship. His stalker had been sending letters still. The same red petals fell out of the same off-white envelopes so frequently that Julian had stopped opening them. He had a pile in the back of his desk drawer.

If it wasn't enough effort to ignore his stalker, it certainly was to try to ignore Derek's frustrating attempts at helping. So he pretended to Derek that they had stopped coming. It was easier. Derek had started to insist that he tell Logan about them and he didn't seem to understand that _this _was his problem. If his stalker was threatened by him kissing an actress in a movie, Julian couldn't imagine how angry she would be about him kissing a boy in real life.

And if Logan found out about his stalker, he would try to help – which Julian figured would only lead to an angrier stalker. Or worse, Julian considered, it would scare Logan away.

* * *

><p>Charlie, Justin and Emil wandered lazily back to Hanover to study for the afternoon. It was a nice day and the prefects were both tired from their practices.<p>

"Ugh, calc is gonna kill me before I come close to figuring it out," Charlie whined, letting each step wait longer and longer for its follower.

He was in no rush to start working and he was enjoying the time with Justin – even if there had been a third wheel. But Emil was in their classes and frequently joined their study parties. He was Charlie's friend as much as he was Justin's, so he couldn't really complain about his company. Even so, Charlie couldn't help but think it would have been romantic if he could have grabbed Justin's hand.

Charlie couldn't walk slow enough to avoid arriving and so they ended up entering the front door. The three boys headed to the common room.

"Hey, Chaz," Justin turned to the boy as they set their stuff down. "Why don't you try to find some food in the kitchen so we can work through dinner?"

Charlie left without questioning it – Justin had that "Hanover Business" look on his face.

* * *

><p>Adam didn't usually spend time in the common room. It spoke greatly to the cluelessness of Andy that he had not questioned the parameters surrounding their previous conversation.<p>

But then maybe Andy was not always as clueless as that. He knew there was more to Adam than the shut-in fan boy that people made him out to be. It wasn't easy transferring schools, after all. So with no goal in mind but to be friendly, Andy found himself at Adam's door.

Adam's roommate was at the debate team's practice, and Andy suspected Adam wouldn't be up to anything in particular. It was the way of the campus. Boys in sports were always at practice until the last possible moment of sunlight, boys in clubs mimicked this devotion and tried to stay later than the sun let the athletes, and boys with no such ambitions took great pains to act as if having nothing to do was the glory of their existence.

Andy knocked on the door and waited for Adam to come to greet him shyly.

* * *

><p>Charlie wandered down toward the Hanover kitchen slowly. He wondered if it still smelled faintly of bleach – he was pretty sure Andy scrubbed the kitchen down frantically every time he thought of it covered in blood. Charlie didn't really know whether Justin had actually wanted him to collect food. But even if he had only meant to shoo his boyfriend for a private conversation with Emil, Charlie figured it'd still benefit him to look for something to eat.<p>

He heard a rustling inside, and as Charlie turned the corner through the doorway, he saw Adam. Adam, who was holding a knife. Adam, who looked like a deer caught in headlights as he noticed Charlie in the doorway. Adam, who Charlie was suddenly very suspicious of.

"Charlie," Adam stated in a low quiet voice. "You scared me."

"Sorry," Charlie replied hesitantly before looking back at the knife. "Is that the knife that was missing?"

Adam looked down at what was in his hand. "Yea, I mean, I had it. I didn't know people thought it was missing. I was just using it."

Adam set the knife down on the counter haphazardly and Charlie walked slowly toward him.

"For weeks?"

"Yes," Adam responded firmly.

* * *

><p>Andy waited a few minutes before giving up on Adam answering. But as he headed back toward his own room, he heard Adam's voice down the hallway – frightened and defensive. Andy felt the briefest pang of protectiveness before a familiar wave of fear rushed into his gut and bobbed there like a buoy.<p>

With a deep breath, he followed the noise and tried to stay hidden behind corners.

* * *

><p>Charlie thought that Adam had realized how guilty he had sounded stuttering like a nervous wreck. In reality, Adam had felt threatened by the lingering approach of Charlie. If Charlie was going to be offensive, Adam was going to be defensive.<p>

Charlie was getting too close to him though, and Adam slowly backed up to the counter. The knife was a foot away from his right arm, but he didn't notice it until Charlie's eyes quickly and briefly flashed to it. In an instant, Charlie reached out and flicked the knife, so it slid across the counter.

"Merril practically put a picture of that knife on a milk carton."

Charlie's tone did not match his joke and it was disconcerting to Adam. He swallowed deeply but let his eyes harden. He would not be intimidated. But Charlie only took this as a challenge and jabbed his hand accusingly upon Adam's chest.

"I don't know what you were really doing, Adam. There's no way you didn't know that people were looking for that knife."

Charlie spread his hand out so that instead of pointing at Adam's chest it shoved him back against the counter.

"If I found out that you're behind all this stuff around here, you're going to seriously regret it. And when I'm done with you – when I'm done making sure you regret scaring my friends - then I'll let Justin at you. I assume you know Justin's secrets?

"I wonder how they'd deal with a traitor in his old gang."

* * *

><p>Adam and Charlie were in the kitchen arguing in loud but not yelling voices. Andy could make out what they were saying, but wasn't really sure what he was hearing. Why was Charlie threatening Adam?<p>

But he had stopped, and Andy, hearing the lull in conversation, decided he was better off leaving before Charlie or Adam found him.

* * *

><p>Justin made a small effort to close the door to the common room after Charlie left, but it still ended up slightly ajar. He turned to Emil who looked at him expectantly.<p>

"How are things with your mum?" Justin began. It was not what Emil was expecting.

"What?"

"Still bad, I assume?"

"Justin, you don't really want me to sit here and talk about my ma, do you?"

Emil was waiting for Justin's real attack. Most of the older Hanovers knew about Emil's bad relationship with his mother. Their arguments that frequently ended up with him staying over somewhere else. But that was old news – old news that the younger Hanovers _didn't_ know, and Emil was happier that way. But Justin wasn't one for bringing up old business with no reason.

"If that's the reason Andy told me to look at your arm, then yea. Yea, I want to hear about your mum. Or I want to hear about whatever _is_ the reason you've started again."

Emil didn't answer.

"That is what he meant, isn't it?" Justin had mastered the art of quiet yelling.

Emil rolled his eyes back and forth across the room angrily. "Andy misunderstood."

"Oh?"

"I didn't start using again, I-"

"So if I look at your arm, all I'm going to see if old scars?" Justin made a reach for Emil's closest arm, but Emil pulled away hastily.

"No. But it was just once. It was a mistake."

"No shit it was a mistake, Emil!" Emil could see Justin's brain wandering over plans of what to do with him.

"Justin, wait," he tried to say calmly. "You were right about it being my ma."

Justin sighed and looked at Emil, waiting.

"Over break. We got into another fight and I couldn't stay there. So I went to an old friend's and…

"And I was stupid, okay. It was stupid. I _know_ it was stupid. But he was letting me stay with him and I wasn't going to sit there and lecture him about how my life was turning around."

"Jesus, Emil, way to make your life a movie about peer pressure." Justin didn't say it as a joke.

"I know, Justin," Emil sighed angrily. "But I woke up feeling like complete shit. And Andy was calling. And I could barely move. And I couldn't let him know. And I didn't want to have to hide things from him."

Justin didn't say anything, and for a minute there was complete silence.

"You don't need to worry," Emil said finally. "I hate disappointing him more than I hate my mom. Spent the rest of break miserably under her roof."

Justin seemed to believe him, and scrunched his face in thought. He would have to keep checking in with him. But for now…

* * *

><p>Andy wasn't usually a snoop - he was just lucking in to eavesdropping opportunities today. This one would be especially lucky.<p>

The door to the common room, still ajar, carried Justin and Emil's voices out to the hallway, but Andy could only understand what they were saying when he stood right outside the door.

Justin's voice was first. "I don't need to tell you he's in love with you, do I? Because I really don't want to have to play matchmaker."

Andy fumed. Who was in love with Emil?

Inside the common room, Emil's face stretched in surprise. "I – No – You don't. Matt told me once."

"So why haven't I had to have the roommate relationship talk with you two?" Justin raised an eyebrow. Outside, Andy did the same as he realized that he was who Justin meant.

"Because I'm still going to disappoint him."

* * *

><p>Charlie walked softly into Justin as the two walked down the empty Dalton brick paths. Students stopped decorating the green with their presence when the sun went down, and by now the only thing lighting the pathways were the lights shining out of windows.<p>

When Charlie came back empty handed, Justin and Emil had assumed there wasn't food in the kitchen and Charlie wasn't compelled to explain what really happened. So Emil had left to eat junk food in his room and Charlie and Justin had left to eat elsewhere.

Crashing lightly into his boyfriend was Charlie's attempt at subtle flirting, as he imagined how easy it would be to walk down the path hand-in-hand.

"So, remember how I promised to not keep anymore secrets from you that are relevant to you?"

Justin stopped in his tracks, and if he had been holding Charlie's hand he would have dropped it. "Chaz, you are literally driving me insane."

"Justin it is lih-trah-ly adorable the way you say literally."

Charlie smirked and turned to face his friend. Justin was less amused.

"Charlie."

"Right," Charlie rolled his eyes. "It's about Adam. He was the one who had the knife."

Justin's eyes darted across the campus as he processed this information. Just as Charlie was about to go on, Justin suddenly sighed in relief. "Thank god! So the knife thing isn't related to the blood?"

"That…" Charlie was very confused. "Is not at all what I was thinking. I think you should question Adam about the blood."

"Adam fainted when he saw the blood," Justin rationalized.

"Yea, because it was _his_ and he was freaked out that someone found it!" Charlie threw his arms up in frustration.

"Charlie, that's absurd." Justin looked at his friend condescendingly and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down."

"Justin, why do you want me to tell you things if you're not going to listen?"

"I _am_ listening, Chaz. And I'm telling you, this is a _good_ thing."

Charlie hesitated and looked toward the eyes of Justin. He wondered whether it would do any good to push this point. He wondered what would happen if he didn't.

"Just…think about it, okay?" he conceded softly.

Justin frowned at the meekness of his boyfriend. He scooted up to the side of him as they began walking again and whispered into his ear, "I promise."

Charlie shivered at Justin's breath and grinned, taking only a few steps ahead as close to Justin before separating.

"What would you say to sleeping over tonight?" Charlie asked nonchalantly, not thinking of his volume.

Either it wasn't particularly loud, or Justin didn't think of it either. "Yours or mine?"

"Mine!" Charlie said it too quickly and too loudly. Justin gave him a weird look. "I, uhm, I still need to talk to the Tweedles tonight."

Justin didn't question it further, and Charlie wondered how long he could convince Justin to stay out of his own house.

* * *

><p>Laura sat down on the grass behind Windsor. Dwight did the same.<p>

"Thank you for dinner, Dwight," Laura smiled, more shyly than she usually was.

"My pleasure," Dwight mumbled, uncomfortable with the mood shift – they had been enthusiastically discussing Lucas' hypothesis on some runes before sitting down.

"Does it bother you that I'm not here often?" Laura didn't look at Dwight but up at the stars.

"You aren't?" Dwight joked, and Laura met his eyes with a smirk.

"You think seeing your girlfriend once a month is often enough?"

"My what?" Dwight looked at Laura with slight horror.

"I – shit – I'm sorry, I thought it was – we _kissed_ - I thought we were –" Laura fumbled over her words.

"Laura," Dwight reached a hand out to hers, with regained control over the situation. "I didn't mean I don't like you. I _do_…"

"But not like that?" Laura's mouth creased in disappointment.

"No!" Dwight was not in as much control as he thought he was. "I just meant – you're _right,_ you live in _London_! What kind of a relationship would that be?"

"It would be what it is now," Laura pouted. "Don't you like this?"

"I do," Dwight insisted. "But if we were...dating…_officially_…I would want _more._"

Dwight wasn't used to seeing Laura upset, and seeing it was making him regret what he was saying.

"I could visit more often?"

"I don't know how you aren't expelled _already_."

"Says the boy who is banned from his own school library."

"Fair enough."

They looked at each with small smiles, just enjoying the night.

"We could try?" Laura asked quietly.

Dwight frowned as he considered it. "I'd like to, Laura, but – are you sure?"

Laura didn't answer but instead dove on top of him, pressing her lips to his tightly. Dwight wrapped his arms around the girl lying awkwardly on top of him and tried to ignore the thoughts in his head telling him the ways this could end badly.

But he soon considered the idea that he was still on Dalton grounds and if Justin wasn't randomly walking by, the boys of Windsor were evil enough to blackmail him. He softly pushed Laura off of him, trying to smile reassuringly and keeping his one arm around her, hoping she wouldn't take it with offense. But his smile was more awkward and hilarious than comforting. Laura ignored it.

"So," Laura bit her lip. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and I've been staying with Merril, but…"

"Laura Bancroft, are you trying to seduce me?" Dwight probably didn't realize his allusion.

"Dwight!"

"What? We've just started kissing, I'm not ready for-"

"Dwight Houston, I am not trying to steal your virginity, here. I'm only fifteen!"

Dwight didn't say anything but looked down guiltily.

"I just thought…This – lying here in your arms under the stars – that it'd be nice to lay like this all night with you."

Dwight blushed. She made a pretty convincing point. "Todd _is_ still at home visiting his parents…"

Laura sat up, clapping giddily and pulling Dwight up with her.

* * *

><p>Adam took a deep breath as he took in what he just heard. He wondered what the rest of Dalton would think if they knew about the sleepover at Windsor. And in a moment of inspiration, Adam grinned. If the rest of Dalton knew. That would distract Justin from his Hanover mysteries <em>and<em> keep Charlie off Adam's back. It was perfect.


	5. The Rumor in the Phone

**Thank you to Leigh for proofing for me. And thank you to everyone who reads (and reviews, right guys?) and enjoys this. **

**Oh, and I don't own Glee or CP Coulter's Dalton.**

It was the last class of the day when a simultaneous text message hit the phone of each Dalton student. Even the teachers heard their phones rattle as they were about to yell at their class.

Those bold enough to look at their messages in class opened their phones right away, only to see the message was from the school's emergency alert number. The system had been set up to send messages about cancelled classes and weather warnings, but as people clicked forward, they would see that this was not the current case.

_DALTON STUDENT ALERT:  
>Spotted, Bancroft having a romantic slumber party at Windsor<em>

Charlie tried to recover from the horrified face that had been his instant reaction. He hoped that the confused expression he was currently wearing was convincing, and that it was the only expression anyone had seen. It seemed he was successful.

Justin was not as lucky, as the whole classroom had turned toward him with the faces of children viewing a freak show. Emil looked like a worried mother. Charlie wasn't looking at him. Justin had not bothered to check his phone like most of the students, and cautiously turned to the small screen. Hours later, he wished that he had been more mindful of his audience and feigned confusion as he read the message. But he was sure that his reaction had instead revealed his genuine fear – and his genuine guilt.

But perhaps his paranoia was unwarranted, as the on-looking boys would sooner rationalize than jump to the assumption that Justin's sexuality was anything contrary to what they already knew. Most, in fact, did not even consider this possibility, and looked just as confused as Charlie was pretending to be. With just as little understanding, Madam Saint-Clair cleared her throat at the front of the classroom and gestured to the hand-out each boy had on his desk.

"Dans cette sélection il s'agit d'un match de hockey…" she began.

Across the hall, Mr. Newman's classroom still appeared as it always did. Mr. Newman himself made sure to silence his own phone - so that he wouldn't appear hypocritical - and it was probably only the relaxed diligence of the seniors that led to so many phones ringing in the French class across the hall. But these students still had their phones, and those who risked missing a part of Newman's lecture checked them routinely.

Julian's single quiet laugh signaled Derek and Logan to check their phones and Logan repeated the gesture. Derek, on the other hand, scrunched his eyebrows briefly, before deciding that whatever this was was not more important than even one word in Newman's notes. Several other Stuart boys had the same short moment of confusion before reaching the same conclusion.

The Windsor boys, however, looked from one to the other with giddy excitement – eager to solve the mystery they had been handed. Some sat crossing off names on their mental check list of who could have possibly been the host, while others were already making guesses.

And in the back of the sophomore English class, no one noticed Dwight looking rather like he had just seen a ghost.

* * *

><p>Charlie had started referring to Adam as creepy. This wouldn't have fazed Emil if Andy hadn't started spending so much time with Adam. But he had and this was more than a little disconcerting to Emil. Emil could see that Adam didn't really like him. He didn't do a very good job of hiding it. That might not make Adam a creep, but it did prevent Emil from joining them and keeping an eye on Adam.<p>

So Emil did the only thing he could think of to protect Andy from the potential creepiness of Adam – he creeped back.

This was why he wandered into Adam's unlocked room after he saw that Andy and Adam were not there. And this was why he swatted quickly at the mouse of Adam's computer, causing it to blink from a black screen to the last thing Adam had left open.

It was a forum. Emil tried to read the post, but it was far too technical for him to understand. Instead he scanned for the subject of the post.

_Re: Fixing poor security in school emergency alert systems_.

Something in Emil's stomach flipped and he had the strong desire to leave. He turned around and bolted through the door without a second thought.

Perhaps if he had given it a second thought he would have turned around to face the angry reaction of Adam. It was a what-if that cycled quickly through Emil's mind as he turned the corner of the hallway to Andy and the boy in question.

"There you are!" Emil coughed as smoothly as he could manage.

* * *

><p>"Now I know Bancroft's sister isn't my type – she's a bit too quirky," Derek began sitting on the bed beside Logan in Julian's room. The other boys frowned at the topic of conversation. "But she could totally do better than – who are the rumors? – the twins? – Wes? – <em>Dwight?<em>

"And besides – get a girl out of her clothes and it doesn't matter whether her bra matches her panties. I bet her body is-"

"Jesus Christ, Derek. I don't want to hear anymore," Logan growled. "Besides…let Justin hear you talking about his baby sister like that and he'll have yet another reason to hate your guts."

"Your sad, perverted guts," Julian added with a laugh. "Is that really what people are saying? They think the text was about Laura?"

"Who else would it be about? Justin?" Derek asked incredulously.

Logan and Julian shared a smug smirk.

"But the Dobry girls all seem to think he's straight…" Derek voiced hesitantly, thinking about the many times he's rolled his eyes as girls swooned over Justin's accent.

"Well, they need to worry about their gaydar," Logan joked dryly.

"He's not gay," Julian blurted without thinking about it. He looked just as surprised at himself as Derek and Logan did.

"Someone's defensive of his new friend," Logan teased, with a roll of his eyes.

"Why are we even having this conversation?" Julian evaded the accusation.

Derek seemed preoccupied with the thought of his competition suddenly a little less that. Logan stood up and walked to Julian's desk. After a quick observation told him that the surface of the desk did not hold what he wanted, he appraised the drawers.

"You're right. Lemme just grab a pen from your desk and we'll get start-"

Logan froze as he looked at the contents of the drawer he had opened. He picked up a pile of off-white letters and turned around with a grin.

"Love letters I should know about, Jules?" he smirked.

Now it was Julian's turn to freeze. Recovering, he muttered, "Just fan-mail, Logan."

But Derek would not let that do. "Julian, if those are what I think they are – you're full of shit!"

"Well, they're not!"

Julian tried to grab them from his boyfriend's hands, but Logan had grasped the sudden weight attached to these letters and dropped most while opening one.

He scanned it quickly, dropped it and grabbed another. Julian stared on in horror as he repeated this process several times. Derek bore a parental expression that seemed to scream 'I told you so.'

"Julian, these are all from the same girl. Why didn't you tell me you had a stalker?"

"I told you you should have told him-"

"You knew?" Logan turned to Derek. "Why didn't _you_ tell me?"

"He told me they stopped!" Derek stared at Logan but angrily thrust an arm out to point at Julian accusingly. Then he turned to face him. "You told me they stopped!"

"I told you it wasn't a problem," Julian clarified, too annoyed to hide even an ounce of it in his tone. "And it's not. Obsessive letters do not a stalker make."

"Yea, but the content of these letters _do_." Logan gestured to the one he was currently reading.

"And bloody rose petals with a torn up picture?" Derek looked at Logan when he said this, like he was offering him more explanation rather than yelling at Julian. "That was a _threat_."

"It's not a big deal!" Julian spat.

With all the effort he could muster, Logan tried not to yell. Something told him he shouldn't be yelling this. Julian was expecting him to yell and it would be far more effective if he could startle the boy. But Logan wasn't really experienced at not getting angry, so it came out in a strangled choke. "Julian, she knows where you live. You can't just assume every threat is an empty one."

"So what should I do then?" Julian scoffed. "Since you two have all the answers. How _should_ I handle this?"

Logan simultaneously what Julian expected them to say and what he could possible say. He didn't really have a master plan to deal with people stalking his boyfriend; he just wanted to be informed when they did.

* * *

><p>Maybe if the message had referred to a secret romance in Hanover or Stuart, those halls would be the ones bursting at the seams with energy and an informal building meeting – run quite poorly at that – taking place in the common room. But something told Kurt that if it was Hanover, the meeting would be far more organized, and if it was Stuart, there would be a lot more coffee. Maybe some more yelling too.<p>

But Windsor hall was instead buzzing with Gossip Girl jokes and extravagant speculations, and Kurt was debating whether he should shush the entire room or just sit back and laugh.

He noticed that Charlie wasn't there, and part of him wondered if Charlie was afraid he'd have to defend himself. Justin and Charlie had been Kurt's first thought, but he was learning from the ideas floating around the room that everyone else had assumed Bancroft meant Laura. Kurt couldn't remember the last time he saw Laura hanging around Windsor, and while he took this as proof against such a hypothesis, the rest of Windsor seemed to take it in favor.

"Ok, fess up," Wes ordered, with the sort of disbelieving tone that wouldn't successfully command anyone.

"Who's dating Laura?" David's tone was a little more authoritative, but Kurt was still surprised that the two managed to force the room into submission.

The theories died down and boys looked to one another expecting some sort of faltering expression. Like someone had managed to keep a secret this long but would start giggling at the challenge of keeping it now.

No one's curious face fell apart and the twins seemed to decide this was proof of innocence. In unison they asked, "Who's missing?"

If Kurt had the sort of comprehensive knowledge that included memories of Hanover emergencies, perhaps he would have felt a strange sort of déjà vu. Perhaps he also would have rescinded his earlier thought that Hanover meetings were less loud and more organized.

"Charlie," Blaine declared. Kurt immediately felt nervous for the prefect and had no idea why.

"Dwight," Reed mumbled.

"Drew and Satoru."

Kurt could tell that the twins were carefully appraising each guess. He had to admit that even with Laura as the Bancroft, Charlie had to be the leading guess. The only times Kurt _had_ seen Laura in Windsor had been when she was hiding from Justin with Charlie. Granted, she had given up on that a while ago. Charlie always told on her.

Out of no particular allegiance to Charlie or animosity toward Dwight – he didn't really have much of the former, and definitely didn't have any of the latter – Kurt saw Dwight brush past the door and called out to him.

"Dwight!"

The boy stopped in the doorway and, after seeing his audience, let panic take over his face. It was enough for anyone and everyone to make up their minds.

Dwight's protests of innocence were lost beneath the catcalls and shock of the observing Windsors.

"_Dwight_?" David yelled incredulously.

"You have got to be kidding me," Wes scoffed.

"How did this happen!" the twins boomed in unison.

* * *

><p>At first Andy thought he would be awkward around Emil. Apparently his brother had told his best friend that Andy was in love with him, and if Justin was any example, this seemed to be a popular opinion.<p>

It was certainly awkward knowledge – that someone thought you were in love with them - and Andy wasn't sure what to do with the information. It wasn't the first time Andy had thought of Emil in a non-platonic sense, but he certainly hadn't concluded that he was _in love_. Besides, it was easy to mistake the combination of attraction and good friendship as something more than it really was.

And Emil had said he was going to disappoint Andy. Andy wondered if that meant he didn't feel the same way – the way Emil _thought _Andy felt, as Andy was still making no decisions – or that he was just worried about his own issues. Either way, it didn't seem particularly motivating.

So Andy decided he would act like nothing had happened – as far as Emil knew, nothing_ had_ happened. He thought he was doomed to fail at this, but Andy's fear of confrontation had made him a good liar and Emil wasn't looking for anything suspicious.

"You left your phone in the room." Emil said it like it was an excuse – for what, Andy didn't know - as the boys walked back into their own room. "It's been buzzing non-stop."

Andy took out his phone.

_Okay, who's Hanover's money on? -W_

_I meant the Bancroft/Windsor text. Come on, someone over there has to have a guess. –W_

_Danny says Emil might know something. Bug Emil for me. -W_

_Fine, don't give me any info to return to Windsor with. –W_

He rolled his eyes and laughed aloud as he looked over the list of messages from Wes. Emil raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?"

"You know that Dalton alert everyone got this afternoon?" Andy asked, and then continued without waiting for the response. "Wes seems to think you and I know more about it."

"You mean about who sent it?" Emil blurted, with too much accusation and too little hesitation.

Andy looked at him strangely. "No…About who it was _referring to_…" The words came out slowly and suspiciously.

"Of course I know who it's referring to," Emil scoffed in a tone that seemed to ask Andy why he didn't know the same thing.

"What do you know?" Andy plopped down onto the bed, eyeing Emil eagerly.

"Are you serious?" Emil stared at Andy until he guessed the answer. "Justin and Charlie?"

Andy's reaction made Emil question whether he had suddenly sprouted antlers, or maybe turned green. A brief look at the mirror across the room reminded him that Andy was sometimes entirely clueless.

"No way. I thought it was about Laura and someone…" Andy stuttered. "When did best friends turn into something else?"

Andy said it without drawing the parallels, and tried not to look too understanding when he saw Emil drawing them himself. Emil saw the flash of something pass over Andy's face, but he ignored it.

He cleared his throat. "I don't really know. But I'm gonna guess they haven't been _just _friends since you've known them."

Andy let this sink in. "It is a secret though, right? I mean, you're acting like I should've noticed…but no one else has, right?"

"That's a good point, I guess," Emil shrugged. "It's not like you hang out with them as often as I do."

"Or ever."

Emil just laughed.

"Are you sure? Did they tell you?" Andy was back to disbelief.

"Yes, I'm sure, Andy."

"What if you're just misinterpreting vibes?"

"Vibes?" Emil rolled his eyes. "You forget - I lived with Justin for a year. I know him about as well as I know Matt."

"Or me?" Andy let it slip off his tongue without even intending to say it.

Emil made a noise in the back of his throat that sounded somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. But when he spoke, it was with a wistful tone that made Andy feel a little uncomfortable. "Andy, the first night I talked to you I knew you better than I know Justin now."

Things were quiet and both boys looked only at the work that was supposed to be occupying them.

"You know who sent the text, don't you?" Andy half-whispered.

Emil looked up in surprise. "I think so."

"And?"

"And you're not going to like it."

Andy stared expectantly.

"Adam. I saw something on Adam's computer."

Andy's brow furrowed immediately. "What were you doing on Adam's computer?"

"It was open; I was looking for you."

"On the computer?" Emil couldn't help but think that Andy sounded like his brother when he was angry. "Here's a hint, Emil: I'm a person. Three dimensional and everything. I haven't been sucked into a computer once in my sixteen years."

Emil gritted his teeth. "Har har, Andy. Does it even matter what I saw? Just because I invaded his privacy or whatever doesn't mean he didn't do it. Doesn't _that_ matter?"

Andy considered it before stubbornly asking, "What did you see?"

"It was some message board about poor security in school alert systems. He was looking up information to hack into it –"

"How do you know he wasn't looking this up after it happened? Trying to figure out who did it?"

"Since when is Adam Sherlock Holmes?" Emil spat.

"Since when are _you_ Sherlock Holmes?"

Emil frowned a little bit and glared at his best friend.

"Okay then, _Sherlock_," Andy began, wearing a smug smile. "How does Adam know about Justin and Charlie?"

Emil considered it. "I don't know. Maybe it was a lucky guess?"

* * *

><p>"I am not at all prepared for the crazy that has to be congregating in my common room," Charlie whined, setting his schoolwork onto Justin's desk and laying back on Justin's bed.<p>

"What are you going to tell them?" Justin had been failing to hide his worry since the walk back to his room and it worried Charlie a little bit.

"That I know as much about the text as they do? Justin, they don't know it means us any more than we do."

"_Someone_ knows it means us – whoever _sent_ it."

"That's not necessarily true," Charlie pointed out. "It could mean Laura and Dwight. _They_ could mean Laura and Dwight."

Justin huffed and refused to consider that as an out. "I'm not about to let them take the fall for us."

"I'm pretty sure the only reason they were keeping it a secret was _you_."

Charlie grinned and stared at Justin with great appreciation for his protective big brother act. Justin sighed loudly.

"It was probably a Stuart trying to get back at you for the dyed laundry detergent."

"I thought pink was a lovely color on them," Charlie smirked, before Justin's expression made him pout. "Come on, even you thought that was hilarious two days ago."

"Well now I think it was childish."

"Jesus, Justin," Charlie scoffed. "When did you start worrying about being childish?"

"Since I started having secrets that could hurt people I care about," Justin mumbled defensively.

"Wow, that's very diplomatic of you, your highness," Charlie scoffed angrily. "Your parents should be proud."

Hurt flashed in Justin's eyes. "I meant you, Chaz. The world isn't as accepting as Dalton, and if you think the British press wouldn't have a field day harassing you and your family about us-"

"You aren't worried about my family; you're worried about your parents finding out about us."

"Of course I'm worried about that, Chaz! But that doesn't mean I'm not worried about you too."

Charlie didn't say anything. Neither did Justin. Suddenly Justin's phone vibrated once against his bedside table. Justin stared at the phone without making any effort to check it.

"That's an issue we're going to have regardless of some stupid text," Charlie muttered, all traces of anger gone from his voice.

"And regardless of your petty house rivalry?" Justin raised an eyebrow and smiled slightly, letting Charlie know that this was at least partially a joke.

"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it!" Charlie's goofy grin returned.

"I think I'll pass," Justin smiled back, and then softly added, "I wish you would too."

* * *

><p>Andy trusted Emil. This was not necessarily because he thought Emil wouldn't lie to him, but because he thought he could tell when Emil was lying. So when he sat in Adam's room, waiting for Danny to get back so they could start their English project, Andy studied the boy trying to decide if he thought Emil had a point.<p>

Adam _was_ sort of weird, but Andy didn't think there was anything wrong with that. He was beginning to think that he even _liked _it. Adam was warming up to him now, and it made Andy smile thinking that he saw something no one else did in the shy boy. And as for his more serious quirks, well…Andy wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt on those.

They had spent most of the time doing other work in silence, but Andy wasn't really fond of silences, and finally felt compelled to say _something_.

"Did you finish the math assignment?" he asked awkwardly, silently debating whether it was any better than an appraisal of the weather.

Adam didn't seem to consider whether the question was just meant to start conversation and answered genuinely. "I'm about halfway through. Why, do you have a question?"

Andy smiled softly. "Yea, on number 7. How do you translate that one?"

As Andy asked it, Andy took out a piece of paper and reached to pull a pen from his bag.

There was a picture in a plastic cover that pulled out a little when Adam tugged the pen out of his bag. Andy could see that it was a picture of Julian from Something Damaged, and he saw the beginning of a large silver scrawl that he figured was Julian's signature.

Adam pushed it quickly back into his bag, with an awkward mix of delicacy and haste, and met Andy's eyes with fear. Would he think he was a freak for treasuring the autograph? But whatever Andy's face was doing, it didn't seem to be judging him. In fact, it seemed to pity him, and something in the pit of his stomach told Adam that he should at least try to explain.

"Have you ever had anything that made you feel better just by being in your thoughts? Not a person - just some object that holds the fragment of a memory…" Adam bit his lip like he wasn't sure he should've said anything.

But Andy's response was quick and Adam saw him remove a folded paper from his pocket. "And if you thought about it, it's just a piece of paper, or a ticket stub, or a stuffed animal. But every time you see it - or hold it - it makes you smile. And maybe it's about time you throw it away – because the memory is yours without the reminder of it – but there's just no way you're ever getting rid of it."

Andy thumbed the paper he had unfolded. He stared at it absently, and Adam tried not to show the effort he was making to see what was on it. It was a drawing – some sort of animal sketch. Andy suddenly noticed Adam's curiosity and flipped the picture over. Seeing the picture didn't really help Adam identify the animal – it looked like it was some cross between a leopard, snake and deer.

"My brother drew it for me when we were little," Andy began. Adam decided this explained why it was such a bizarre drawing. "There was this one summer we spent at our house at Lake Erie. We were so close to Cedar Point, but our parents wouldn't take us and I got really mad. So Matt distracted me by making up stories and drawing me pictures."

Adam smiled softly. "You were at a beach house and you were complaining that you couldn't go to a theme park?"

"Ha, well," Andy laughed. "Port Clinton wasn't very interesting to an eight year old."

"Port Clinton?" Adam asked abruptly. "My parents just bought a house in Port Clinton. I think they want to use it so they can visit me for a while."

"That's cool. I take it they're not there yet?"

"No."

"We should throw some sort of party over the summer. Matt used to invite everyone to our beach house over Spring Break – back when I was too young to go."

"Oh." Adam gave a noncommittal nod, but Andy got a gleam in his eyes and Adam could tell that he was already lost inside the memory.

"The one year someone kept spiking Charlie's drink because they didn't believe he couldn't drink…And then Justin figured it out and had a fucking panic attack trying to figure out how much Charlie had drunk."

Adam could tell it was the kind of thing he was supposed to laugh at. But Andy wasn't really laughing either, so he didn't feel compelled to pretend he thought it was funny.

"Yea, well, I can't see any harm in knocking him down a peg," Adam mumbled. He even found himself not regretting admitting it to Andy.

But the second he said it, Andy knew. Adam found himself wondering if maybe he _should_ regret his newly formed confidant.

"It was you, wasn't it? The message?" It didn't sound accusing – it was too soft – and it didn't sound like a question. So Adam didn't answer.

"It's okay." Andy sounded kind, but fumbled over his words. "I get it – kind of. I mean, not really. But I don't really need to, right?"

Adam raised an eyebrow and hesitantly asked, "You're not going to tell anyone, are you?"

Andy shrugged like he hadn't considered it. "Who would I tell?"

That seemed to be enough, and Adam smiled slightly.


End file.
